


Where the Heroes Walk

by tatertotarmy



Category: Tales of Series, Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Gen, NaNoWriMo 2017, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-02-09 18:32:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 50,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12894204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatertotarmy/pseuds/tatertotarmy
Summary: She wakes in a field without a name or a memory, thrown into a world of monsters, blastia, and magic. Finding home may not be as easy as it seems.Self-Insert for Tales of Vesperia, first 50,000 words completed for NaNoWriMo 2017





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!
> 
> So one of my favorite things to read in fanfiction is a good self-insert. I just think they're so fun and fascinating to read, especially ones regarding the Tales series! I've always wanted to write one, but I've been putting it off for so long.
> 
> Until this year, when I decided it was going to be my project for NaNoWriMo 2017!
> 
> So yea, the first 50,000-ish words, post-editing, is what I wrote for NaNo! It was super fun, and I'm slowly working my way through it to properly edit it. However, here is the first chapter! Hope you enjoy!

A crisp breeze cupped my cheek. In my ears, the rustling of bushes, the stomping of footsteps.

“Shit. Hey, you alright?”

Muddled words, spoken as if they were yelled from the end of a tunnel. The voice wasn’t familiar, though I couldn’t remember a voice to compare it to.

“She doesn’t look injured.”

Another voice, closer this time. Louder. But softer than the first. Less emphasis on the hard sounds, spoken more like a song. 

“Hey, you awake?” 

Someone grabbed my arm, giving me a sudden shake. 

My eyes opened to bright light.

A blue, cloudless sky hung above me, the sun perfectly centered above. I saw a small line of leaves in the corner of my eye, the tops of trees. To my left, a man sat upright beside me, one hand on my shoulder and furrowed eyebrows. Blond, blue eyed, tanned to the shade of sand, multiple white scars decorating his skin. His hair is a mess, sticking out in every direction like he had just woken up. Around his neck, there was a green bandanna.

Unfamiliar.

“Hey…” the blond looked the slightest bit relieved, but still held a serious line on his lips, “You alright? Any injuries? Miracle ya weren’t monster food.”

I stared for a moment. Monsters? Injuries? I didn’t feel hurt. Nothing serious, at least. Just plagued with that out of body sensation, as if I was staring out from a faraway place, through the lens of my eyes. It felt numb.

I willed myself to shake my head. 

“Good…” the blond leaned back, looking over in another direction, gesturing over someone else with a hand wrapped in white bandages, “Niral. Can ya give her a once-over? Can’t be too careful ‘round these parts.”

I hesitantly lifted my head up, trying to test out my body, which felt strange to me, somehow. A few feet away stood a tall person with oaken skin and white hair that nearly concealed their face. They were dressed in a long, tan cloak that concealed their form, leaving only the little features of their face revealed to the world. 

Their answer was only a slight nod of their head, striding over and kneeling on the other side of me.

“Don’t worry. Niral’ll take care of ya,” the blond smiled reassuringly at me, “They’re the best damn healer in Dahngrest.” As I looked over towards the one called Niral, I could see a blank expression and striking crimson eyes looking at me through the curtain of white.

Several questions ran through my mind. Dahngrest? Healer? Nothing rang familiar in my mind. However, all questions fled my mind when Niral stuck out one hand from their cloak, a thin, bony arm, and a glow of light flowed out of it.

I stiffened up as alarm bells went off in my head. Something told me this was wrong. That this was impossible. I tried scooting away from the light only for the blond to hold me back, pinning me to the spot by the shoulders.

“Hey, hey, hey!” the blond looked me in the eye, “It’s alright! What’s up? Never seen healin’ before?” Niral simply moved their hand over my body, and all I could muster was an aggressive shake of my head. 

The blond sighed, “Jeez. Niral, can ya cut it fer a sec? Yer freakin’ the lady out.”

Niral slowly retracted their hand, expression not changing once, “She is unharmed.”

The blond chuckled breathlessly, “All business fer ya, huh? Heartless.”

Niral simply stood back up and walked a few feet away, retaining their previous distance.

“Right, right…” the blond sighed and looked back towards me, “So how’d ya end up here? This is probably the worst place fer an unarmed lady to wind up.”

I stared again for a few moments, “I…” My voice sounded raw, something I barely recognized at first. I stopped to remember what it was supposed to sound like, but I remembered nothing.

About anything.

I sat up, looking around wildly, my head swimming from the momentum, perspective sloshing around inside my brain. A wide open field, with trees lining one direction and a clay horizon in another, a large outcrop of buildings sitting on the line between the blue and the clay, a strange white series of halos floating above it. When I tried to remember just why I was there and what had brought me here, pure static filled my brain. Nothing came to me.

It wasn’t a shocking revelation, more of a surprise. Just a small ‘oh’ in my head as I took in the information.

“I don’t remember,” I finally answered, my voice still feeling foreign in my throat.

“Ya don’t?” the blond asked, “How ‘bout before now? Maybe ya took off fer somewhere…?”

I shook my head, “I…don’t remember.”

The blond didn’t seem like he was getting it, “Where’re you from, then?”

I turned my head to look him square in the eye, “I don’t know.”

There was a pause in the conversation as the blond stared at me, not quite believing it, but his expression slowly melted into concern. He looked over at Niral and nodded.

In seconds, Niral was beside me again, a hand raised to my head, pouring more of that glow into me. I tried to get away again, but the blond held me still.

It took only moments before Niral was done, “No injuries.”

“What?” the blond asked, “Ain’t this supposed ta be from hits to the head? Yer blastia goin’ bad?”

Niral lowered their hand from me, looking the blond square in the eyes, “I said no injuries.”

“Jeez, don’t gotta get sassy with me, ya ghostly fuck,” the blond sighed, looking back towards me, “Anythin’ ya do remember?”

I searched my brain again, only finding nothing. I shook my head.

“Really? Not even a name?”

I shook my head.

“Geez…” the blond paused, looking down to the ground to mull over something.

“Riley,” Niral spoke.

“What?” the blond, Riley, asked, head jolting back up.

“The barrier.”

“What about the barrier?” Riley asked, irritated.

“We should be in the barrier,” Niral stood up and took a couple steps in the direction of the city on the horizon.

“Shit, you’re right…” Riley spoke, standing up himself and looking down at me, “Hey, can ya walk?” He outstretched a hand towards me, an offering to help me up.

“I think so…” I took his hand and was pulled up to my feet. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel anything wrong. Aside from the numb, of course. 

“Good. Dahngrest is ‘bout an hour walk from here. We can walk while we talk. Better ta talk more inside the barrier than risk monsters,” Riley pointed towards the city on the horizon, “Oh. Should introduce ourselves. Name’s Riley. That one over there is Niral.”

I looked between the two and smiled politely, “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Pleasure’s all mine,” Riley grinned, “But what’s yours? I mean…well, shit, do ya even have a clue?”

“Nothing,” I admitted, a frown pulling at my lips.

“Well, that jus’ means we’ll have ta come up with our own,” Riley looked around, “How ‘bout…Robin?”

I rose an eyebrow, “Robin?”

“I saw a bird.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, “That’s creative.”

“Look, my job’s ta help, not ta be amazin’ at this shit,” Riley laughed, “Let’s get a move on. Bet Russ’ll be worried if we take too much longer.”

“Russ?”

“Ah. Guildmaster, technically,” Riley’s grin got a little cocky, “Me ‘n Niral are members of Snake Eyes. I’m actually co-founder! Heard of us?”

“Um…no?” I chuckled awkwardly now.

“Well damn. Must be because of the bad brain shit.”

“I actually have a question.”

“Yea? What?”

“Um…” I scratched the back of my head sheepishly, “What’s a guildmaster?”

Riley stared at me for a long pause, before letting out a disbelieving laugh, “Just…how much do you not know?”

As we walked down the path to Dahngrest, Riley filled me into this world around me. Tales of blastia, monsters, the guilds, and the empire. It wasn’t too in depth, and at times Riley admitted that he only knew bits and pieces of certain things. But every word of the empire was spoken with pure malice.

And every word he said sounded like some sort of story, rather than reality. 

But I guess that this must be the world I knew. Why else would I have ended up somewhere in the middle of the field like that?

Which begged the question:

“So how could a little lady like you end up all the way out there?” Riley asked as we neared the city limits, “Had to have been from either Dahngrest or Heliord, right?”

“Logically speaking,” Niral answered bluntly.

“Exactly!” Riley grinned, paying Niral no mind as he looked over at me, “How ‘bout a walk through town? Gotta be half a chance you’ll find someone ya know. Or at least find someone who knows you.”

“Are you sure? It looks like it’s getting late…” I answered, trying to hide my exhaustion from walking so far. The clothes I was dressed in – a simple nondescript blue shirt and tan pants with sandals on my feet – had not been designed for a long trek in mind. Already, I could feel blisters form along too many sides of my feet. It took all my willpower to not just give up on the spot.

“Nah, that’s just Dahngrest. Always looks like evenin’ there cept when it’s night. We still got a ton of hours ta waste,” Riley kept marching on like he didn’t have a care in the world. However, he was dressed for the adventure. Black shirt, a tan jacket made out of a rough, durable material, and blue pants that concealed well-worn brown boots. His pants even had zippers beneath the knee so he could make them into shorts. I was definitely jealous.

“Really? Great,” I tried to make my voice sound as eager as possible. I could feel Niral’s eyes on me all the while.

“So Niral. When we get ta the city, can ya report ta Russ fer me? And give him an update on our little situation?” Riley turned his head towards Niral.

“This was your job. Russell would prefer you report.”

“But we got a situation. Russ’ll understand.”

“He would prefer to gauge the situation himself.”

“Ah, Russ has too much shit on his plate. I got this.”

“He’s guildmaster. That’s his job.”

“And I’m his right hand man. Doesn’t that mean I outrank ya, Niral?” Riley looked back to the city, which was quickly approaching, “Or do ya have a special date waitin’ fer ya? Sure that dude from Altosk would love a pass at ya.”

“I don’t,” Niral crossed their arms.

“Then why ya gotta be such an ass ‘bout it?”

“Fine. I’ll report,” Niral sighed, walking faster than before.

Riley laughed, “Damn, did I actually hit a nerve with that? He was perfectly nice.”

Niral was silent, as they remained for the rest of the walk.

And only ten minutes later, stepping into Dahngrest was like a dream.

Buildings upon buildings, people walking around in adventuring gear and strange (?) attire, and roads that seemed to wind forever through the city. From when I first saw it on the horizon, it seemed so tiny. But now, it was endless. Niral had been quick to part from Riley and I when we passed the main bridge to enter. In fact, it had been a few moments before I realized that Niral had departed. They hadn’t even said goodbye.

“Ah, don’t worry. They’re always like that,” Riley said soon after, shrugging it off, “Pain in the ass when it’s the opposite. They’ve suck up on me too many times. Once I clocked them right in the nose.”

“Oh no!” I exclaimed.

“Nah, don’t worry. They blasted me right out the window of our apartment with a fireball. Took forever to repay the landlord. And for Russ ta get less irritable. It’s all good now,” Riley laughed, waving off the thought of it, “Anyway…so this look familiar? This is it.”

“No, not really,” I looked at him sheepishly.

“Eh, figured it wouldn’t be that simple. But, thankfully…we have connections. Snake Eyes has fingers all ‘round this city. If ya know someone here, we’ll find them right quick,” Riley gave a toothy grin before draping an arm over my shoulders.

“Right…” 

Honestly, I wasn’t feeling too confident for some reason. Still, some part of me hoped. 

“Hey, don’t frown like that! We’ll find someone,” Riley began ushering me through the streets, “And I know just the place to start!”

After suffering through another walk through the winding streets of Dahngrest, we arrived at a rather small shop in the corner of town, right near where the barrier blastia’s influence ended. It was a slender building that looked no wider than two carts pushed together, with two stories. There was a small overhang above the front door and window, with a decorative pink sign that read: Melodus Tailoring. In the window, I could see mannequins dressed to the nines with elaborate outfits, half fit for an adventurer, the other half an odd collection of fashion statements. A green and purple dress, a skirt covered in potion holders, a hat that looked like it was made out of trash…even I had to stare for a bit.

Riley was quick to catch on, “Nice clothes, am I right?”

“Wait, you like them?” I asked on instinct.

He laughed, “They’re weird, honestly. Wanted ta see yer face. Maybe I shoulda convinced ya this was the height of fashion in Dahngrest, with yer shit brain.”

“That would’ve failed as soon as I walked into Dahngrest.”

“Shit, you’re right. Actually, these are the height of fashion in the empire! They love their trash outfits.”

“Right. I totally believe you.”

“Maybe I should ask our contacts if anyone’s missin’ a sarcastic little woman.”

“Riles?”

A voice called out from the building. Riley’s head turned towards a new crack in the doorway, and he grinned.

“Ev! Been too long!”

In an instant, the door swung open, revealing a slender, pink-haired woman with carefully cut bangs and hair that reached her waist. However, what struck me as odder than the hair color was her choice of clothing. A pink and purple checkered shirt, a black jacket lined in pink fur, and a short, black skirt with purple fabric peeking out from underneath, her legs covered in fraying tights and sturdy black boots. She looked over at Riley with a bright smile on her face, with her amber eyes occasionally flicking towards me with a curious raise of her eyebrow.

“It really has!” the woman spoke with a happy tone, striding over to embrace Riley, “You really need to stop by more often!”

“Only if ya don’t try ta force me ta be your model,” Riley chuckled, pulling away from her.

“Force? Don’t make it sound so negative, Riles. You volunteer so eagerly,” she looked over at me and tilted her head, “Who are you? New recruit?”

“Oh, no no no,” Riley waved a little, dismissing the thought immediately, “Found this little lady out in the wilds all by her lonesome.”

“What?” she began inspecting me with a close eye, “You alright? You’re not harmed, are you?”

“Oh, I’m fine!” I answered.

“Well, ‘cept fer one thing,” Riley rested his arm on my shoulder, “She’s got amnesia.”

“Amnesia? Oh, you poor thing.”

“I was wonderin’ if ya knew anythin’ ‘bout her. Figured you’d be the best place ta start,” Riley looked over at me and held out a hand towards the pink haired woman, “Robin, this here’s Evelyn. She runs a little shop out in these parts. Sellin’ whatever…this…is.” He gestured vaguely towards Evelyn’s attire, and she quickly smacked his hand.

“This just so happens to be the height of fashion, Riley. Dahngrest just needs to move up to my level,” Evelyn explained quickly, her eyebrows furrowing.

“Good thing ya make other shit or else you’d be homeless until ya died.”

“Fuck you.”

“Oh, little princess is gettin’ rowdy now!”

“How ‘bout I break that leg of yours?”

“Which one? Take yer pick.”

I stared at the two of them the entire exchange. Were they…really friends?

“I think I can figure out how to deal with one of them.”

“And I can figure out how ta fight on one.”

“That’s nice. Anyway, you’re Robin, right?” Evelyn looked right at me with a bright smile, clearly ignoring Riley at this point. 

“Oh…that’s what Riley calls me,” I answered. While Evelyn wasn’t looking, Riley was making a face at her.

“Oh? Then what’s your real name?”

“I…don’t remember.”

“Oh, I see…” Evelyn looked at me long and hard, concentrating a little, “If I knew your real name, this would be easier…” Her eyes began wandering around, a hand on her chin like she was deep in thought. However, it all dropped when her eyes wandered downwards. She gasped, looking a little more, bending down a little. I followed her gaze to find the source: my sandals.

“Riley Sereno!” Evelyn snapped her head back up and glared at Riley, “Just how long have you been making this poor girl walk in these shoes?”

“Hey, I didn’t make her do anything! She came with the shoes!” Riley shot up his hands in defense and backed up a few steps.

“That’s no excuse!” she turned back to me, her harsh gaze softening as she met my eyes, “How long have you been walking in these? Your feet look terrible.”

“Um…an hour or so.”

“An hour!” Evelyn looked right back at Riley with a fierce gaze, “I swear! Did you not notice the pain?”

“She didn’t say anything!”

“That doesn’t matter!” Evelyn took my hand and winked at me, “And you’re not taking another step away until you have some proper shoes. And clothes.”

“She’s not a Snake Eyes member, Ev,” Riley spoke.

“Hey, she could be in the future. Oh, do you expect me to take money from a girl who doesn’t know her own name?” 

“True,” Riley laughed, “Wouldn’t expect less from ya.”

“Hm?” I tilted my own head, “Are you a member of Snake Eyes?”

“Oh, no!” Evelyn laughed the thought away, “They just get special treatment here. Anyway, let’s get you all set up. Take off your shoes when you get in and throw them right into the trash.” She pulled me along as she made her way back to the little store. Riley chuckled behind us as he followed along.

She opened the door and I was greeted with the smell of roses. 

The shop was a quaint little place. It was tiny, a slim build with a deep length, but crowded with countless items. Mannequins lined the walls and crowded the window, hats hung by strings from the ceiling, and if Riley had been a few inches taller, he would have run right into quite a few hats. In the corner of the shop sat a small register and table, and further in the depths were rickety looking stairs that led above. There was a small rope that tied off the stairs, with a small sign with letters I couldn’t decipher.

Wait…was I supposed to be able to read that?

“I think I have a bucket in my room…Riles? Can you go upstairs and fill it up with some warm water? I think I still have enough for this,” Evelyn hurried over to the register, fetching out a wooden chair from behind as Riley walked towards the stairs, undoing the rope with the strange sign, “What did I just say, Robin? Off with the shoes!” 

I jumped, breaking my eyes away from the strange lettering to bend down and undo my shoes. They quickly came off, revealing quite a large number of blisters and irritated skin underneath. Evelyn plopped the chair behind me and looked at my feet with concern.

“I knew it…they were way too big for you…” Evelyn sighed, laying a hand on my shoulder and guiding me down to sit, “Nothing that little soaking can’t fix. Or, at least help.”

“Oh…thank you…” I spoke, looking down at my feet and cringing. They looked terrible.

“Of course!” Evelyn crossed her arms. Above, I could clearly hear the turning of a squeaky knob and the rush of water. She smiled before looking back down on me.

“So Robin…” she sighed, “Unfortunately I don’t recognize you. I get requests from all sorts of guilds all over town, so if someone was reported missing, it should have come up on my radar…”

“Oh…” I frowned, though honestly I had been expecting it. Dahngrest didn’t feel familiar to me. The name struck something inside of me…but not the town itself. Or the inhabitants, for that matter.

“Ah, don’t feel too bummed out,” Evelyn knelt down beside me, smiling reassuringly, “If you don’t find someone here, then that’s just a town to cross off the list.”

I couldn’t help but smile. That was a different perspective on the matter.

“That’s better,” she grinned as Riley stomped down the stairs, a small, blue bucket in his hands. She looked over and urged him along with a ‘come here’ motion of her arm. He walked over, plopping the bucket between my feet.

“Ah, thank you very much, Riles! Now, let’s get to work, here…”

“Ya know we got a lotta track ta cover in Dahngrest, Ev.”

“And?”

“So we gotta get to findin’ someone who might know her. Get some progress goin’.”

Evelyn huffed, turning her head to Riley, “Unless you plan on carrying this girl through town, then I’m not letting that happen. How about you go get Russell?”

“What?” Riley groaned, “Why do ya need him?”

“I need to discuss a job,” Evelyn flicked her wrist in a ‘shoo’ motion as she looked down at me, “Go ahead and put your feet in. Should feel pretty nice.”

I nodded, plopping my feet right into the hot water. At first, it stung…but slowly it dissolved into a soothing sensation that worked at every blister and sore spot on my feet. I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. 

Beside my chair, Riley threw up his hands in defeat, “Alright, alright. Good luck, Robin, you’re gonna need it.” Without another word, he walked out of the store, the sound of his footsteps trailing off down the street towards the center of town. 

I couldn’t help but ask myself one question: Good luck?

Evelyn smiled, looking down at me, “That feel good?”

I nodded again, smiling.

“Ah, good. I definitely know that pain. Sometimes wearing heels really gets at you.” She walked over towards the desk, opening some drawers and pulling out various objects I couldn’t see. The most of what I could get a glimpse at were the corners of papers, a string of yellow, and a small notebook that looked like it had been in use for years. Once the notebook was out, she began flipping through the pages, each page looking tanned and frayed. Every few moments, Evelyn would look up at me with a calculating eye before darting back to the notebook, shaking her head, and flipping through some more pages. It definitely felt awkward, especially since I didn’t know what to talk about.

After minutes of watching her flip through pages, I opened my mouth hesitantly, only to stop short of saying anything. She looked so focused, it almost seemed rude to ask what she was doing. Or to interrupt her in any sense of the form. I looked down to the bucket and to the distorted picture of my abused feet, and decided to look up once more.

“Thank you, by the way…” I spoke quietly. Evelyn looked back up, surprised. Though her look slowly dissolved into a kind smile.

“Don’t think anything of it. It’s the least anyone would do,” Evelyn chuckled, “Or, at least the least someone like me would do. Can’t pretend the world is perfect.” She picked up her notebook and strode over to me, dragging along a second chair behind her to sit in front of me, the notebook sitting in her lap. The pockets of her skirt were now filled to the brim with countless items, practically bulging out and threatening to fall out. When I tried to get a good look at what I could see, Evelyn opened the notebook to a random page.

“Sorry, must’ve seemed weird from your perspective,” Evelyn chuckled, showing me the page. On the right page, there was a heavily detailed drawing of Riley. Well, detailed was only part of it. It was a full body sketch of him, with his face only detailed faintly so I could recognize his defining features: the white scar beneath his right eye, the long scar that trailed from the middle of his left cheek down to beneath the collar of his shirt. The real detail was in the clothes he was wearing. It was a complete design, each and every stitch carefully drawn out. Occasionally, arrows would point to certain areas with notes in a language I couldn’t read, the same that I saw on the roped off sign. On the left page were several paragraphs of tiny notes, along with larger text on the bottom that was very short and concise. There were also small sketches of different angles of his clothes, such as one of the back of his jacket and one sketch of his pants with the bottom legs zipped off.

“Wow,” my voice slipped out after I took it all in, “That’s amazing.”

“I try,” Evelyn laughed, flipping a few more pages, “All of these guild sorts are creatures of habit. Once they like a certain style of adventuring clothes, that’s all they want. Honestly, it’s sometimes infuriating.”

“So they just want the same thing every time?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yea,” Evelyn laughed, flipping a few more pages, “For some of them, it’s like their signature. This is where I keep all my notes for everyone who walks in the shop. I figured that just maybe I could find you in here. My memory isn’t perfect, after all.” She looked up at me and smiled hopefully. As the pages settled in her lap, the new picture design drew me in for some reason.

It was a person I couldn’t remember, but couldn’t stop staring at, like something was pulling me towards the vague design. The rough sketch of the person depicted a man with messy black hair tied up, practically sticking out in every direction. The design of his clothes, however, were what really drew me in. A purple jacket with some intricate designs of yellow and black on the collar. A pink shirt, black pants with pink diamonds on the bottom. Generally, it seemed like a tamer fare than what Evelyn’s tastes seemed to be…but this seemed so striking to me.

“Robin?”

Why, though?

“Robin? You there?”

I looked back up to her and met her eyes, “Yea?”

“You alright? You zoned out there for a second,” Evelyn reached over to place the back of her hand on my forehead, “Riles got you checked up, right?”

“O-Oh, someone did.” What was their name again? Narrel? Nirel? Oh, Niral. “I was just looking at your drawing.”

“Oh?” Evelyn looked down towards the design and sighed, “Oh, this one. It took forever for him to be happy with it. He kept on asking for different things. I probably went through a thousand concept sketches for him.”

“Oh jeez, that sounds terrible.”

“Well, whatever pays rent, right?” Evelyn laughed, flipping the pages again – removing that strange design from drawing my attention away, “So Robin…you actually have amnesia, right?”

I stared for a moment, a little confused, “Yes…?”

“Oh, that might sound weird,” she flipped through some more pages, occasionally looking up at me if there was someone who looked vaguely similar to me, “In Dahngrest…we sometimes get people who are on the run. They’re running away from something in their lives and resort to the guilds to find their little sanctuary. Stories of amnesia aren’t uncommon here.”

“Have you heard some?” I asked.

“Just one,” Evelyn smiled, saying nothing more on the matter, “But you’re not in that situation, right?”

“Honestly, I wish I was,” I chuckled breathlessly, “It’d be easier for me. Everything around here just seems like a dream…”

“How so?”

“Just…everything…” I looked up to the ceiling, “The barrier blastia, the entire town. It all feels like it just…like it’s all a dream. Like I’ll wake up somewhere else.”

“Well I certainly hope I’m not a dream,” Evelyn chuckled, “I have way too many things to do before I’m done.”

“Oh, you’re definitely real…” I spoke quickly, scratching the back of my head, “I don’t know. I’ve been feeling weird ever since I woke up.”

“You mean other than your amnesia?”

“Yea…I can barely even describe it.”

“It could be stress,” Evelyn offered, flipping to a blank page of the notebook, “Here you are. Strange place. You don’t know anyone. You don’t remember who you are. I’m surprised you’re being so calm about it.”

“Well…it’s not like I can miss what I don’t remember,” I admitted, trying to crack a smile. 

Evelyn frowned, “Hey, you’ll find someone who knows you. I’m sure whoever’s in your life is worried about you.”

“If only I could remember them, too,” I sighed.

There was a pause between us. Evelyn stared at me, looking like she wanted to tell me something, but restraining herself. I kept my eyes on the blank pages of the notebook, finding it easy to focus on that than her gaze. 

“Well,” Evelyn reached into one of her bulging pockets and pulled out a small, yellow roll of measuring tape, “No use in worrying now. We have important business to get to!”

“Huh?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You don’t have to get out of the water…but you’ll need to stand up. I need to take measurements.”

“What? But…”

“Look, in this town, new canvases to work with are so rare!” Evelyn grinned, suddenly standing up from her chair, her chair scooting back with a skidding noise, “You have to let me draw something up for you!”

“Wait…but I’m not – ”

“Don’t even finish that sentence because you have no choice in the matter. This is your payment for the shoes!”

“But I haven’t even gotten the shoes yet!”

“But you will be! This is an advance payment!”

And unfortunately, she did not give up that point until I eventually gave up and let her do her thing. Thankfully, she had done so many measurements that it was a simple affair for her to grab all of my numbers. She would only take seconds to do every measurement, jotting them down into the notebook in that strange language. However, the measurements on the tape measure were numbers I could read…and I could insinuate that the characters on the ends stood for ‘inches’ and ‘centimeters’ respectively. Or at least their shorthand versions. I was too afraid to bring up my apparent illiteracy just yet with anyone.

With every measurement, Evelyn would confirm it out loud, more for herself than for me. But I couldn’t help but notice that the numbers were off. I kept expecting for the numbers to be bigger. I looked down at my body. It felt right…but it looked different. More bony than what I believed it should have looked like. 

But why would I know that? I couldn’t picture what it was supposed to look like. Again, I was struck with the feeling that something was wrong.

When would that feeling go away?

Evelyn finally finished measuring practically every part of my body, and soon settled into sketching mode. She was silent that entire time, focusing on her sketch of me while I was left staring at the door, waiting for when Riley came back. I couldn’t see a clock in the store, but I knew quite a long chunk of time had passed. Just where had he gone? He was just going to get someone, right?

As if on cue, the door slammed open. I jumped in my chair and looked right over. Strangely, Evelyn did not flinch once, still focused on her sketch. 

“Ev! I brought you a gift!” Riley called out from the door, stepping inside with a stranger in tow. 

He was a tall, well-built man who seemed pretty damn intimidating. Brown skin, neatly shaven head, and striking copper eyes. He wore a style very similar to Riley’s attire, a grey shirt that hung loosely off him, a neat yellow jacket with a more formal style than Riley’s, and black pants that seemed very nice and well-maintained. Strapped to his back was a rather large sword that honestly didn’t seem real to me. It probably was real though. And the thought of that scared me. It was too big.

The mystery man scanned the room until his eyes fell on me. Immediately his expression softened, walking over to me with his eyebrows raised in concern.

“You’re Robin, right?” his voice was softer than what I was expecting.

“Yes,” I confirmed with a nod.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he offered me a hand to shake, “I’m Russell, the guildmaster of Snake Eyes. Riley and Niral told me all about your situation, and I will do what I can to assist you.” I hesitantly shook his hand, smiling. He was really a nice guy, wasn’t he?

“You’re so formal, Russell,” Evelyn looked up from her sketch, grinning, “You haven’t even discussed payment, yet.”

“This is a special case, Evelyn,” Russell chuckled, turning his attention to her, “Riley said that you needed me?”

“Hm?” Evelyn looked at Russell for a few seconds, not saying anything before an apologetic smile appeared on her face, “Oh, that was to just get Riles out of the room. He would have kept distracting me, otherwise.”

“Seriously?” Riley groaned.

Russell just laughed, “I see. So no job from you?”

“Well, I’m sure I could think of a few, if you’re up to the task, Russell,” Evelyn smiled, giving a mischievous smile.

“If you want me to pester Leviathan’s Claw again, then I will have to refuse.”

“What do you mean, pester? It’s just advertising to improve those shitty uniforms. Uniforms that I can easily provide.”

“They aren’t interested.”

“Then…Hunting Blades? They have a ton of members!”

“You’ll have to do that yourself, Ev,” Riley spoke up, crossing his arms and frowning, “Snake Eyes rules.”

“Oh shit, forgot,” Evelyn sighed, “Well, they’re out. They won’t talk to me about business. Um…”

“How about no advertising jobs, Evelyn?” Russell smiled apologetically, “I think your resources should be used towards better purposes.”

“Russell, how dare you underestimate the power of spreading the word,” Evelyn was smiling, despite her words, “So, what is your plan with little Robin, here?”

“Why are you curious?” Russel asked.

“No reason,” Evelyn hummed, “Maybe it’s a potential job.”

“Oh,” Russell smiled knowingly before he looked back at me, “Robin, Riley informed you about guild rules, right? In general, of course.”

“Yes…” I thought back to when Riley was explaining everything to me, “Guilds have laws they must abide by…right?”

“Huh? You didn’t know that?” Evelyn spoke up, tilting her head.

“Her brain’s shit,” Riley answered.

“Oh,” Evelyn looked back to her sketchbook and began sketching me out again.

“Correct,” Russell continued, “Snake Eyes is a guild whose sole mission is to provide assistance to any other guild or individual who has run into…well…a bit of bad luck. As such, we have several guild rules that Riley and I established when we founded the guild.”

Riley was grinning, walking to the table with the crash register and sitting down like he owned the place. Evelyn looked over at him and gave him a warning glare. He quickly got back up and just leaned against the table. Evelyn sighed and returned to her drawing.

“There are two rules that apply to you. The first, that Snake Eyes assist those who cannot pay, so long as payment is procured at the completion of the task at hand. The second is that if an individual, or the representative of a guild that contacted us for work, is unable to provide payment to Snake Eyes, that they provide payment in an alternate way, such as tangible rewards…or labor for the benefit of the guild.”

“Russ obviously worded those rules,” Riley added with a laugh.

“Wow, you know those exactly by heart, don’t you, Russell?” Evelyn chuckled, eyes still focused on her notebook.

“So…how does that apply to me?” I asked. What was their task for me?

“Well, technically my obligation to you was to bring you to Dahngrest,” Riley spoke up.

“But you wanted to help me find someone in Dahngrest,” I corrected.

“Don’t see harm in walkin’ ‘round with a pretty lady,” Riley smiled genuinely. I stared. Was he…complimenting me…or flirting? It was honestly really hard to tell.

“Riley, you can’t just say that to a lady,” Evelyn sighed.

“Why? You’re both pretty ladies, why shouldn’t ya know?” Riley looked between the four of us, “Actually, we’re a bunch of fuckin good lookin’ people.”

Oh. So it was just a compliment. Suddenly, I felt more at ease.

“Anyway…” Russell looked pretty amused, “This brings us to the form of payment to Riley and Niral’s services to you. I don’t believe that you possess any funds.”

“No…” I frowned, patting my empty pockets, “What you see is all I have, honestly.”

“Well, that brings us to my proposal regarding your situation,” Russell smiled gently at me, “Snake Eyes has been requiring some help, and we believe that you filling this position will greatly benefit both of us.”

“What is it?” I asked curiously.

“Being a letter runner for us,” Russell motioned between Riley and him, “Snake Eyes takes a wide variety of jobs, both small and large. Unfortunately, we’ve found that our time is pretty limited. It’s hard to report on job completion when we’re preparing for the next one.”

“Oh, you were complaining up a storm last time you were in,” Evelyn looked up at me, “It was probably the most angry I had ever seen him.”

“It wasn’t a good day for me,” he chuckled, “Anyway, we just need you to give various guilds and people around the city our official notices of completion. And collect any jobs that guilds need to give us. We’ve been getting complaints that we aren’t easy to get a hold of, too.”

“Nobis gave me a fuckin earful the other day…” Riley rolled his eyes.

“Is…that really it?” I asked. Running letters? It seemed so simple.

“Well, there is one more detail…” Russell looked over at Riley.

Riley stood up and walked back over towards us, “Ya see…we can’t really let ya go off on your own and risk ya tryin’ ta skimp out on yer debt. So ya gotta board with us. Just so we can keep a good watch on ya.” Riley winked at me.

Wait…were they giving me a place to stay? On top of letting me walk around, potentially finding someone who knew who I was…?

“Oh, that’s certainly a roundabout way to get around the guild rules,” Evelyn laughed, looking up at Russell, “You just have to love those loopholes, don’t you?”

“Well, it’s useful in these situations,” Russell smiled, looking down at me, “So, Robin, do you accept these terms of payment?”

I nodded quickly, “Yes, of course!”

“Then it’s settled,” Russell looked a little apologetic, “However, I will have to apologize at the state of our apartment. We’ll have to…well…shift around our living situation.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to tell Leona the news,” Riley began snickering.

“I’m sure Leona won’t have to change her sleeping situation.”

“She’ll have a body to step over on the way to the toilet.”

“Well…we can’t exactly help that,” Russell shrugged, “She’s not set to return until tomorrow, so we won’t have to worry about that piece of information.”

“Is Leona another member?” I asked.

“Yep! Actually the only one ya haven’t met,” Riley laughed, “She’s a bit rough ‘round the edges, but I’m sure she’ll warm up to ya real quick. She’s a big softie.”

“She’s off on bodyguard work for Fortune’s Market,” Russell explained, “I’ll be sure to explain the situation before you return tomorrow.”

“Oh, Russell, sorry to interrupt this little meeting you’re having in the middle of my shop,” Evelyn rose her hand to put a stop to the discussion, “But I believe I have a non-advertising job that you’ll be happy to take up.”

“Really?” Russell rose an eyebrow, “What are the details of this job?”

“Oh, nothing really serious,” Evelyn pointed at me, “I’m asking you to supply this girl with clothes. You seriously can’t expect her to walk around Dahngrest in that simple outfit? And she’ll need a change of clothes, too. And new shoes. I’ll be paying you 1,000 Gald to outfit this girl.”

“An interesting proposition,” Russell rose a hand to his chin, considering it with an amused look on his face, “And what exactly would you charge us for this task? We would have to do some research between the other tailoring guilds, you know.”

“How dare you even consider that after all I’ve done for you,” Evelyn frowned, “But I will tell you, despite your transgression! The total cost is 1,000 Gald. What do you say, oh noble guildmaster?”

“And yet you teased me for bending my guild rules,” Russell laughed.

“What bending of the rules?” Evelyn smiled brightly, “I can assure you, that as the sole member of Melodus Image, that no rules have been bent in the slightest.”

“Can you even have a guild with one member?” Riley wondered out loud.

“Last time I checked, that’s none of your business,” Evelyn snapped to Riley before smiling back up at Russell, “So do we have a deal?”

“Of course. When can you have the clothes done?” Russell asked.

“They should be done by tomorrow morning. I’ve been struck by inspiration!”

“You aren’t gonna cover her clothes in bird feathers, are you? You remember that Robin isn’t her real name, right?” Riley joked.

“Keep talking, and I’ll cover your next patch job in feathers.”

Riley laughed, but said nothing more.

“So, are you finished with Robin for the evening, Evelyn?” Russell asked, looking down at the bucket of water, “With…whatever you’re doing.”

I chuckled awkwardly, “My feet are soaking.”

“Hm?” Evelyn followed Russell’s eyes, “Oh! Punish your guild member! And have him carry Robin back! Riley made this poor girl walk in the worst shoes imaginable and they’re all blistered!”

“I’m sure Riley didn’t notice,” Russell answered bluntly.

“Russ…I dunno whether yer throwin’ me under the bus or helpin’ me out here,” Riley sighed.

“Well…” Evelyn looked up at me, “Do you feel good for walking a good bit? Their apartment’s not exactly close.”

“I think so…” I asked, deciding to stand up and test how my feet felt. They still felt like shit, but not as bad as they were before. I carefully stepped out of the water. Well, it wasn’t as bad as it was when the sandals were on, but it still stung. But it was bearable. Unfortunately, there were a couple of angry looking blisters on the top of my feet that just didn’t look pleasant to look at. 

“Ouch,” Riley spoke as he looked down at them.

“Just what had you been walking in, Robin?” Russell asked.

“Sandals?” I shrugged.

“Ah, the top ones don’t look any more better…” Evelyn shut her notebook and tucked it under her arm, standing up as well, “Well, I have something upstairs that might help overnight. But…I wouldn’t put on any shoes. At least not until you wake up tomorrow.” She hurried over to the steps, climbing up to the top floor. Beside me, Russell unstrapped his sword from his back, handing it over to Riley. Wordlessly, Riley took it and strapped it onto himself, but was obviously struggling with the weight. And after it was on him, he seemed to be standing rather lopsided.

“Alright, hop on up,” Russell knelt down in front of me, back facing me, arms held out.

“Wait, really?” I couldn’t help but stare, “I’m sure I can make it back fine.”

“Ah, I’m sure Ev’ll give us hell if we did that,” Riley laughed, “Plus, ya can’t really walk barefoot in Dahngrest. Buncha drunkards like breakin’ glass bottles. You’ll probably get a huge piece of glass in yer foot.”

“I don’t mind,” Russell looked back at me with a reassuring smile, “I’m quite used to this.”

“Well…fine,” I felt a little awkward, climbing onto the back of someone I had just met. But he didn’t seem to feel any awkwardness with it, and as soon as I was on him, he stood up as if I weighed nothing at all. Soon, Evelyn strode down from the top floor, carrying a small bottle and a pair of brown boots. When she saw me held up on Russell’s back, she frowned.

“Russell…” she whined, stepping up to him, “It’s Riles’ fault. Let him take care of it.”

“I’m sure she’ll be safer on my back,” Russell chuckled.

“I can lift fine!” Riley called out, frowning.

“Oh, I believe you,” Russell replied with an overtly pleasant smile on his face. He totally didn’t believe Riley.

Evelyn sighed, handing over the bottle and the shoes to Russell, “As soon as you’re settled in for the night, rub half the bottle on one foot and the rest on the other. It’ll work like a charm.”

“Oh, thank you,” I spoke, peeking over Russell’s shoulder.

“It’s no problem at all. I think I grabbed the right size for you…but if it feels tight, then have Riley carry you over first thing, alright?” Evelyn grinned.

“Right,” I found myself grinning as well.

“Alright, we’ll be off,” Russell bowed his head slightly, motioning for Riley to head for the door, “Thank you for your help, Evelyn. I’ll be sure to visit you soon for some more business.”

“As long as that means me giving you a new look, then I’ll be all ears,” Evelyn walked the three of us to the door, holding the door open as we all passed through.

“We’ll have to see,” Russell answered. 

“Thank you, Evelyn,” I called out behind me as we stepped out into the chill of a dark, evening Dahngrest, darker than the twilight I had walked through before.

“Of course! I’ll see you tomorrow, Robin!” Evelyn waved before shutting the door behind us. 

The walk through Dahngrest was a change from when I first walked through with Riley. The populated streets were now thinned out, and I could tell that a lot of people out were taking full advantage of the bars. Either that, or they were looking pretty shifty, as if they were up to something. But Riley and Russell paid them no mind, walking along, chatting without a care in the world.

They talked about guild business, most of it going over my head. Russell asked about the mission that Riley and Niral had gone on together, which had evidentially been an emergency supply delivery to the Fount of Warmth. Riley talked of the journeys across various continents whose names I could barely understand. He talked of hot springs and apparently how stubborn Niral had been to refrain from participating in a nice, hot bath. 

“I mean, that shit’s so expensive. When else are they gonna give a couple guild lackeys a free pass? Niral coulda asked fer a private one,” Riley had said with an irritated sigh. Apparently, the supply deliveries to that guild’s hot spring had been interrupted, so they were in desperate need for help. It had taken quite a long time for the mission to be completed, but it had been worth it.

“Regardless, I’m glad you arrived home safely, Riley,” Russell looked over to Riley fondly, “I know you dislike deliveries, but the payment will keep rent paid for several more months.”

“I know, I know,” Riley just grinned, “That means ya better give me a good thing ta do. After all this shit’s sorted out, right?” He motioned vaguely at me.

“I’m right here, Riley,” I spoke up, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Ya were keepin’ so quiet I thought ya weren’t,” Riley teased with a wide grin, continuing on with his conversation with Russell.

It was true that I hadn’t been contributing much. There wasn’t much to contribute. They were talking like they were in a completely different world than I was. Talking about guild, rent…I didn’t even know my name. What could I say that wouldn’t be interrupting?

So instead, I turned my eyes to the stars.

They seemed so magnificent, filled to the brim with life. For some reason, I felt that I had never seen a sky full of so many stars before. The moon looked so big and marvelous, a full moon hanging perfectly in center above us, casting a blue glow onto the ground that slowly drowned out the browns and reds of twilight. However, what was more magnificent were the rings hovering in the sky, protecting the entire town from the monsters that dwelled right outside of the border of Dahngrest. 

How could everyone go about their lives and not stare at this sky, filled with beautiful white rings? 

The sky was suddenly concealed by red brick, the approaching wall of a building. I broke concentration, looking back down to see Riley approaching a slim, small building with one door on the bottom with a covered brick staircase on the side, trailing up to another door.

“Watch your head,” Russell warned before the two of them headed to the staircase, walking up until they arrived at the doorway. Beside the door was a small metal mailbox filled to the brim with letters, some fallen to the ground. 

At the sight, Russell sighed, “I’ll review those tomorrow. There wasn’t that many when we left…”

“Jeez, did someone die?” Riley asked with a short laugh, fetching some keys from his pocket and unlocking the door, swinging it open. It opened with a long creak that could probably be heard from across the street. I winced, but the two men didn’t seem to mind. 

“Alright, are you fine with walking?” Russell asked, looking back to me.

“I’ve been fine, honestly,” I replied with a short laugh.

“Well, I wouldn’t want Evelyn to get wind of that, would I?” Russell laughed, kneeling down and letting me off his back. The brick floor was cold on my feet, so I made no waste in following them inside.

The apartment was, frankly, a huge mess.

It was a supposedly one bedroom apartment populated by four guild members, and it showed. There was the main area with one ratty mattress with a couple blankets thrown over it situated right next to the front door. On the far wall, a hammock hung from the ceiling, populated with a couple pillows and blankets. Throughout the main room, there were various letters strewn about the main table, all opened with notes written in the strange language. Some were even drifting around in the matted carpet floor, seemly scattered after someone bumped into the table. There were several weapons hanging on the wall near the door, ready to be taken off at a moment’s notice. Several short daggers, another large sword that looked like an extra of Russell’s, several brass knuckles, and some knives meant to be kept in concealed places. As we walked in, Riley placed Russell’s sword on a spot beside the other large sword, the sheath resting on the ground beneath it. 

On the left side of the room sat the only neat spot of the main room: the kitchen. It looked perfectly cleaned, almost untouched. However, the neat sorting of various potion bottles on the corners and the neat bowl of apples and bananas told me that it was regularly populated.

“Ah, home sweet home,” Riley sighed, flopping down on the ratty mattress beside the front door. On further inspection, I could see various items of his around the mattress. Extra changes of clothes that looked in a similar style to the kind he wore, a brown bag that he had been wearing when we first met, and some various bottles of different colors I couldn’t identify.

Russell walked through the main room, stepping over a few piles of letters, “It’s rather late, so I’m sure you’ll want to lay down. I’m sure it’s been a rough day for you, Robin.”

“Oh, yes…” the mention of a bed made me want just that. The walk at the beginning of the day had been rough, sure…but it was mainly my mind that felt tired. Tired from taking in so much information. Tired from trying to find information in my brain that wasn’t there. Tried from all the new faces and new interactions. I just wanted to lay down and digest everything. And maybe when I woke up…everything would seem real. Maybe this numb feeling would go away.

“Great. You can sleep in my bed for tonight,” Russell offered with a smile.

I stared.

“Uh…” Riley spoke up, rolling over in his bed to look at Russell, “Where’re ya gonna sleep, Russ?”

“Well, you have the largest mattress other than mine, so I’m sure you can stomach sleeping together for the night,” Russell spoke.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh?” Riley smirked, “Don’t wanna chance Leona’s bed?” He pointed with his thumb at the hammock.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to pass,” Russell chuckled.

“Are you sure? Maybe I can – ” I started, only for Russell to raise a hand.

“We wouldn’t want you falling out of the hammock, right? It’s…not very stable. We’re not sure how Leona does it,” Russell scratched the back of his head, looking over at the hammock skeptically.

“It’ll be fine, Rob,” Riley called out, “It’ll be like when Russ n’ I were kids.”

“Well…alright,” I agreed hesitantly.

“Good…” Russell walked down a short hallway, where only two doorways, “Feel free to use the bathroom. I’ll get the bed ready. I’m sorry…but we don’t exactly have any extra clothes to spare to change into.” He motioned to the first doorway on the left.

“Oh, it’s fine! These are actually pretty comfortable,” I spoke with a smile, walking through the bathroom door as Russell continued to the other door, opening it up.

I closed the bathroom door behind me and took in a deep breath, finally getting a moment to myself. My eyes lingered on the flimsy wood of the door for a while, relishing a moment of peace.

I looked around, taking in the bathroom. Like the kitchen, it was a clean beacon of hope in the cluttered mess of an apartment. However, it was tiny, only containing an odd looking toilet and a sink, with a mirror above. No bathtub or shower to be seen. However, it was still spotless. I breathed a sigh of relief at that, silently thinking that I’d walk into a disgusting mess. 

And then, my eyes slowly rose to my reflection.

A dawning realization immediately struck me.

I couldn’t remember a thing about myself. Everything before the moments when Riley and Niral found me on the fields outside of Dahngrest were faded into static. Robin wasn’t my name, but it was the only one I had. But despite all of this mystery surrounding my memories, my past, and the itching sensation in the back of my head that this wasn’t real, there was one thing that came to me that I knew to be completely, irrevocably true.

The woman who looked back at me in the mirror was not me.

Blue eyes, short brown hair that curled to my chin and frizzed like a halo around my head. Pale skin, unblemished aside from flushes of sunburn that decorated the tops of my cheeks and my hairline. A circular face shape, though slendered by a gauntness in my cheeks, an obvious sign that I hadn’t been eating properly. No. Not me. This wasn’t me.

I saw myself begin to breathe faster, panicking through this revelation. Was it a revelation? I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to be, except that this was not who I was. I could see the lines of my collar bone peeking out of my shirt, lines that I should not be able to see. I could see the shirt drape over me, concealing a slender body of bone and skin. I looked down at my skinny arms, noticing things that weren’t there. Pale arms with no freckles, no moles, no scars. There were supposed to be freckles there. There was a mole that sat near the corner of my elbow that wasn’t there. There was – 

My head pounded, static flooding into my brain as I tried to remember. I felt like puking, but the release wouldn’t come. I felt myself clutching the edge of the sink, trying to keep steady. Something knocked off the edge, crashing to the ground. I heard voices from outside the bathroom, but I couldn’t make them out. I could only clutch whatever I could grab. I could only focus on the static. Only focus on the bile releasing from my mouth and into the sink.

And then, I could hear a gentle voice behind me. A hand on my shoulder. I looked into the mirror and saw nothing behind me.

A collapse. A yell. The opening of the bathroom door. 

_A white room._

_Complete white, encompassing every corner of my eye and every fragment of my mind. There was no floor, no ceiling, no ending. Just me, alone, floating in white._

__

_Every now and then, I would blink and see pictures behind my eyelids._

__

_“ ------! Are you ready?”_

__

_A chubby young woman with wavy brown hair and large glasses looked at herself in the mirror, combing through her hair._

__

_“ ------?”_

__

_The voice was saying my name._

__

_The woman turns her head. My perspective turns the same. It was a mirror. That woman was me._

__

_“I’m almost ready!” the woman called out. I called out._

__

_I kept trying to rewind the memory, catch the syllables that made up my name. But it was all a jagged puzzle piece with broken edges. I could hear the word as crystal, but it broke into shards when I tried to repeat it._

__

_The woman walked away from the mirror, opening a white door that lead to white._

__

_Suddenly, I felt hands cover my closed eyes, ending the vision and my chance at grasping the name._

__

_“Don’t.”_

__

_A gentle voice calls out behind me, his voice tickling the back of my neck._

__

_No. I wasn’t going to let this go. I closed my eyes again and again, trying to find my name again. It was so close! So close I could almost repeat it on my own tongue! I couldn’t let it slip away again! I knew it!_

__

_“Please listen to me.”_

__

_The voice sounded like it was begging, pleading for me to give up the search._

__

_I furiously shook my head in response. I tried to plead for him to let me remember, but no voice escaped my throat. I was mute._

__

_“Please.”_

__

_It was the last word I heard before I began floating upwards, his hands slipping away from my face. Before I could turn around, I felt myself dissolve into the white space, turning into the nothing that surrounded me._

__


	2. Delivery

“Robin…”

I emerged in a cocoon of scratchy blankets, lying down on top of a soft mattress. I felt groggy, as if I hadn’t even slept. At least…I assumed I had been dreaming.

“Robin…?”

A hand reached to my shoulder and gave me a light shake. I cracked my eyes open, looking up from a small bed to see Riley standing beside it, looking down at me with a concerned look in his eye.

“Riley…?” I asked, slowly sitting up, unfortunately leaving the warmth of my scratchy nest. I looked around the room, which was completely bare compared to the living room. It was tiny, only comprising on the bed I rested on and a small mattress on the ground by the other wall. There was an open closet door that looked jammed packed with various clothes of different styles, all owned by different people. I looked up at Riley again, a little confused. The last thing I could remember was looking into the mirror and having that…incident.

“Ya feel alright this mornin’, Rob?” Riley asked.

“I feel alive,” I answered honestly, “What…happened?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Russ heard somethin’ break in the bathroom. When he went ta check on ya, you were all freakin’ out. Pukin’, all delirious…till ya jus’ passed out,” Riley motioned to the other mattress, “We had Niral look at ya, but they didn’t find anythin’ wrong. Do ya remember anythin’?”

“I was just…looking in the mirror and…” I paused, not sure if I should tell Riley about the dream and the visions of the white room – it sounded crazy, even for me, “I just started feeling woozy all of a sudden. I honestly don’t know what caused it.”

Riley frowned, not too pleased with this revelation, “Ah, jeez. What’s with all this weird shit with ya, Rob? Collapsin’ all of a sudden n’ sleepin’ ‘round in monster plains? Dunno whether we picked up a bad luck charm or not.”

“Well…if I am a bad luck charm, then the good news is that it only affects me,” I chuckled, trying to change the subject. Trying to forget the horrors of the static and the failure to retrieve my name. It just made me so frustrated. I could taste it. But I was still Robin in the morning. 

“That’s true. Keep that bad luck to yerself, ya magnet,” Riley seemed to relax more, his serious demeanor washing away, “Ya good ta walk? Niral put on that shit Ev gave ya. Feet should be good as new.”

“Oh?” I brushed aside the covers. My eyes widened at what I saw. Completely unblemished, unblistered feet looked right at me. What? But that was impossible! I gaped at it, looking between Riley and my feet with a wide-open mouth.

He couldn’t help but laugh, “Magic’s weird, right? Fuckin’ potion shit.”

He led me back to the main room of the tiny apartment after the wonders of foot healing potions wore off. As soon as I left Russell and Niral’s room, I smelled something good in the kitchen. Riley and I turned the corner to see Niral in the kitchen, cooking up a light breakfast of eggs. And…only eggs.

“Sale at the market,” Riley explained, swiping a plate for himself before heading over to his mattress to sit down and dig in. Russell sat on the couch next to the letter table, sorting through some new letters. He would open them one at a time, reading through, then sorting them into two separate piles. Once I got my plate from Niral (who was acting as if nothing had happened the previous day), I walked over to the couch, situating myself next to Russell.

“Oh, Robin!” Russell looked up suddenly when I sat down, his concentration on the letters breaking, “Are you alright? You certainly gave us a scare last night.”

“Yes, I’m fine…” I replied, raising a hand to calm him down, “Thank you for caring for me last night. Sorry to be such a handful, though. I’ve barely even been here and – ”

Russell raised a hand, silencing me, “Pay it no mind. We’ve all been in difficult situations, and we’re more than happy to assist those in their own.” He smiled warmly at me.

“Where’s my thanks, Rob?” Riley called out from across the room.

“Anyway,” Russell continued as if Riley didn’t say anything, “I was just sorting through some letters. I have business to attend to for the majority of the day, so Riley will show you around the city and tell you where everything is.”

“So…is today my first day?” I asked curiously.

“I guess you could say that,” Russell spoke, “But I suppose you’ll need to drop by Evelyn’s shop first thing.”

“But it was late when we left, right?’ 

“When Evelyn has her mind set on a deadline, that deadline will be met. I would be more concerned by making it to her shop before she falls asleep.”

“Right! Which is why we’re leavin’ in a few,” Riley chimed in, standing up from his mattress and walking back to the kitchen with an already empty plate of food, “Hurry up ‘n eat, Rob. Twilight’s wastin’.”

“What…?” I asked, looking down at my yet untouched plate of eggs. I looked up to Russell with a confused look only for him to shrug, motion for me to hurry up, and return to his letter sorting.

After perhaps the fastest plate of eggs I have ever ingested – along with a large cup of water (“You need to stay hydrated after last night,” Russell said) – Riley and I walked down the twilight streets of Dahngrest, me in my new boots that fit like a glove and Riley with some letters he had swiped out from one of Russell’s piles.

“Jeez, do they think we’re a damn delivery service?” Riley cursed, looking through one request.

“Didn’t you guys just do a delivery?” I asked, recalling the overheard discussion from last night.

“Well, yea? But they’re mostly borin’,” Riley huffed, pocketing that particular request and going onto the next letter, “The fuck does Altosk want? They got all the lackeys in the world!”

“Altosk?”

“Basically the guild that runs the city ‘n the union…” Riley opened up the letter, “Better not be some complaint.”

I kept silent, following along. Despite the explanations Riley had given me about the guilds, it still sounded like a foreign language to me. I supposed I should’ve kept a closer eye on the jargon since it was where I would be for now, working with a guild to deliver letters to mostly guilds, but I was too tired and full of eggs to sit through another city tutorial.

However, Riley was silent as he read the letter, not offering a complaint in any way. Instead, he seemed fascinated. 

Before I could ask him the contents, I heard a voice call out to us.

“Robin! Riles! Hello!”

Evelyn stood outside of her shop, carrying some mannequins outside dressed in the weirdest fashions I had ever seen. 

“Hello!” I called out, closing the distance between her and I, “How are you today?”

“I’m doing great!” Evelyn looked between Riley and I, “And you two? How are the boots, Robin?”

“They’re great! And…I’m awake,” I admitted, scratching the back of my head.

"What about you, Riles?" Evelyn tilted her head, looking curiously at him. I looked back to see him still reading the letter.

Riley seemed to be startled aware by Evelyn, “Oh, I’m doin’ same as always, Ev. What the fuck are you putting outside?” He quickly pocketed the letter and grinned widely. I rose an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“Fashion,” Evelyn answered bluntly, “And I’m going to be running the place outside, today. It’s such a good day, and honestly putting some color on the streets will catch some attention, right?”

“Do ya have a bodyguard ready?” Riley asked, sliding up to her, “I know where ya can find a good one, free of charge.”

“And have you abandon Robin? I don’t think so,” Evelyn shoved him aside, putting the mannequin down and smiling, “I never have issues when I run the place outside. Nobody ever tries to steal or start trouble.”

“Gee…I wonder why,” Riley answered sarcastically.

“But I will have to ask you to watch the place for a short while, Riley…” Evelyn turned her attention to me, “Because I finished your clothes.”

“Oh?” Honestly, I was pretty surprised despite being told that they would be ready. “Really?”

“Yep! Nothing that an all-nighter couldn’t do,” Evelyn stretched, smiling brightly as she waved a hand at Riley, “You stay out here. I’ll be done with your new recruit in a few.”

“She’s not a new recruit, Ev,” Riley affirmed.

Evelyn shrugged, “Well, she’s working for you, right? Same difference.” She placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and began to lead me inside the shop. While the walls were sparse compared to the previous evening, mainly because she had moved some of her wares outside, the shop seemed as cluttered as ever. I couldn’t see anything new in the shop aside from a small pile of folded up clothes beside the cash register. Evelyn strode to the pile, scooping them up and handing them over to me.

“There’s a small changing room over there,” Evelyn pointed towards a door situated under the stairs, “Say something if you need help!”

I took the clothes and walked in. Meanwhile, Evelyn continued to grab things and move them out.

Thankfully, everything was simple enough to put on. 

And the result was amazing.

The first layer was a black muscle shirt that formed perfectly to every curve of my body, holding everything in in a way that didn’t seem tight or constricting, just enough to let me know something was there. The second was basically half of a shirt, with long, wide sleeves that covered a majority of my hands when I held them to my side. The shirt was a dull teal color lined in white, including the ends of my sleeves. The third layer on top of that was two dark brown leather bracers tied above my sleeves, pulling all that fabric tight to my forearm, leaving my upper arm a little poofed up. The bracers had an intricate design stitched into it in tan thread, looking like the petals of a cherry tree flowing down. For my pants, Evelyn had made me tan pants, loose and baggy on my legs and tied together by a dark brown belt. There were tons of pockets sewn into it, with each pocket outlined in dark brown thread. The bottoms tucked neatly into my new, brown boots. 

And as I looked into the mirror with this new ensemble...I felt myself comparing my face to the one I had seen in my dreams. The entire time I tried the clothes on, I kept my back to the mirror, afraid that the same thing would happen again. But this time, there was no shock. No static. Just the woman I now was, dressed in some pretty nice clothes. Maybe it was because the shock had worn off, diluting into just a fact I had to live with. At least…until I could remember my name.

If I could.

But I could point out the differences clearer than I could before, now that I had something to compare it to. My new face was much slimmer…more angular in places than before. The face in my dreams had been fuller, softer. They looked similar, that was for sure. But it was not the same.

I sighed, trying to keep it out of my mind. What was I supposed to do? Sit and wait for something to happen? Tell the guild that I had a weird dream where I almost remembered something? It felt so pointless to dwell on it. 

So instead, I looked at myself. In my new face, and if not new, then my old face. I looked at all the detail work, mastery, and care that went into my new ensemble. And I smiled.  
Because damn, these clothes made me at least feel pretty cool. 

I emerged from the shop with Evelyn, who was grinning from ear to ear. Riley had been poking at a dress made entirely of lace when he looked over to me.

“Damn. Ya really did good work this time, Ev,” Riley walked over, grinning, “Plenty of pockets fer letters n’ shit. Nice ‘n practical.”

“My work’s always good, Riley,” Evelyn replied, patting me on the shoulder, “But I did keep her job in mind when designing it. Everything feel good, Robin?”

“Yea!” I exclaimed, flopping around my arms, feeling the extra fabric bounce around my upper arm.

“Well, if yer that pepped up, then time ta show ya the ropes,” Riley stepped back, motioning for me to follow, “Thanks fer everythin’ Ev. I’ll be sure ta stop by soon.”

“You better! I need to run some more ideas by you!” Evelyn turned, walking back to the shop to collect some more wares to display outside.

“Yer delusional if ya think you’ll get me outta these,” Riley laughed, walking away from the shop and towards the city. I waved at Evelyn before I followed suit, happily looking down at my new clothes. She also packed me a few extras as well as some night clothes, which I kept in a small backpack. I couldn’t stop smiling, only looking at Riley when he finally began to explain everything.

“So yer job’s pretty simple. Ya deliver letters to the right guilds. The names are all writted on the envelope, so ya shouldn’t be confused while doin’ it.”

My smile dropped when Riley flashed an envelope at me with the weird language written on it again.

Oh no.

“Like this one’s fer Fortune’s Market.”

He flashed a letter and handed it over. I tried to memorize the scribbles. Fortune’s Market. Fortune’s market. I repeated it over and over in my head, but he immediately flashed another letter.

“And this one’s fer the Bunny Guild.”

Wait? Bunny Guild? There was a Bunny Guild? I took the next letter and tried to memorize that as well.

Wait. I had pockets. The right pocket was for Fortune’s Market. The left was for the Bunny Guild.

“And this is fer Ruin’s Gate.”

I had lower pockets. Alright. Bottom right was for Ruin’s gate.

“There’s a ton more.”

Oh no.

“But we’ll getcha started with easy shit. Once ya find yer way ‘round the city, we can get ya goin’ ta more guilds. Fer now, maybe Fortune’s Market and Altosk are good places ta start. Maybe all the master guilds, since their places’re so hard ta miss,” Riley swiped the letter from the Bunny Guild back before I could pocket it.

“So…am I just delivering letters…?” I asked, already feeling pretty damn winded from this explanation. I couldn’t read. What kind of amnesiac didn’t know how to read? I was supposed to remember all the basic stuff! Right?

“Nah. Once people get ta recognizin’ ya, I’m sure they’ll pass shit onto you. We’ll look at ‘em all. We don't accept 'em all…but…” Riley thought for a little while, “If ya get a request from the Hunting Blades, rip it up in front of their face.”

I stared at him, “What?”

“Oh, shit, that’s not a good idea. Get me so I can do it,” Riley grinned mischievously.

“But…why?” I asked, “Are they a rival?”

He scoffed, “Course not. They’re a monster huntin’ guild. We never do business with ‘em though. Guild policy.” 

I rose my eyebrow, “Why not?”

“That’s a long story I don’t feel like tellin’,” Riley sighed, looking down for a second. He continued on, leaving me with the two letters for Ruin’s Gate and Fortune’s Market. I kept them both safely in my hands, intensely concentrating on the lettering. I could do this. I could definitely do this.

“So ta find the master guilds, ya jus’ gotta follow the signs,” Riley spoke, pointing up to a small street sign sitting by a corner with five scribbles with five different directions written onto them, “Easy ta find, honestly.”

Easy to find if I could read. But…this actually wasn’t so bad. I could just compare the writing. I held out the letter to Fortune’s Market and matched the writing up to one of the signs pointing to the east. Good. I had at least something to go off of.

“So anyway, I can walk ya ta Altosk ta get ya introduced ‘n shit. Might as well show ‘em who ta bother. Aren’t ya jus’ a lucky – ”

Riley stopped dead in his tracks.

I almost ran into him, stopping short of his back. I stepped aside, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow. His eyes were fixated on the top of some buildings. I couldn’t see anyone up there at all. 

“Riley…?” I asked. He was tense, focusing so hard that he didn’t even hear me. I rested a hand on his shoulder, giving him a light shake.

“Riley?”

He snapped out of it, looking own at me with a dazed look in his eye, “Oh…” He looked down to some letters in his hands, thinking a little. Then, he handed them all over to me.

“Um…what are you doing?” I asked, accepting the letters, but not sure where to put them.

“Sorry, Rob, somethin’s come up,” Riley didn’t even look at me, turning his eyes back to the rooftops, “Give this ta Altosk, will ya? Follow the signs ‘n ya can’t miss it.” He handed me one final letter, an open one with several scribbles on it, more than the one I was familiar with. I grabbed it and felt a pit open up in my stomach.

“Wait, what? But Riley – ”

I only saw his back as he ran down an alley, soon going out of sight.

I looked down to the letters in my hands.

Alright. Here was the situation. I couldn’t read. I had several letters that required me to know how to read. I needed to deliver said letters. I didn’t remember how to get back to the Snake Eyes apartment. And I was completely fucked.

Wait. Maybe Evelyn could help. 

I turned around, looking around. Shit…which way had we gone? How many streets had we crossed? It hadn’t been a straight shot. But her shop was near the edge of the barrier! Maybe if I walked all the way to the perimeter, I could find it.

Ah, but what if I started to go in the wrong direction? That’d take all day!

I looked down to the main letter in my hand, with multiple scribbles on it. I looked to the small street sign, finding a matching scribble on the board.

Well…to the scribble destination I went.

I slowly made my way down the streets, passing by countless people wielding huge weapons and angry demeanors that made me want to run for my life. I ended up stuffing a majority of the letters into my backpack, instead keeping out the few letters with matching scribbles to Riley’s letter. At the very least, I could get one thing delivered.

Time seemed to go slow, an agonizing countdown to when I could find some familiar face. I kept trying to spot someone from Snake Eyes. Russell…Riley…Niral…none of them were ever in sight. How was I even supposed to find my way back if Riley flat out ditched me? Now I was wishing Russell had punished Riley in some way last night after Evelyn demanded it. How could he ditch an amnesiac to fend for herself? What an ass!

I turned a corner, fuming as I wondered what I would say to Riley the next time he showed his miserable little scarred face to me, when I suddenly saw a wall of pinks and purples right in front of me.

A hit. A stumble back. A small flurry of letters hitting the ground.

“Ah! Crap!” I exclaimed, trying to keep the letters from blowing away in the wind. I bent down to pick several of them up. Someone stepped down on one of the letters before it blew away from my hand.

“Watch where yer goin’. You’ll plow an old man down at that speed.”

A familiar voice.

I slowly looked up, seeing a symphony of pinks and purples with a splash of yellow. I immediately recognized the clothes from the drawing I saw in Evelyn’s notebook. I looked the man in the eye, staring at him wide eyed. He didn’t look too familiar to me, but at the same time, he did. Tired eyes, stubble on his chin, darkened skin from long days out in the sun. Messy black hair tied up, each strand standing up in different directions in a huge poof.

I knew this man. But I didn’t know how.

He looked own to the letter under his foot and bent down to grab it. I stared at him with wide eyes the entire time, not sure what exactly I was supposed to do. Say I did know this person from somewhere. Weren’t they supposed to know who I was? Wasn’t this part of the reason I was delivering letters like this? I didn’t know a thing about this guy except I had seen him somewhere. But not exactly. I had seen his clothes before. The face was…vague. The man looked over the back of the letter and rose an eyebrow, looking back down at me.

“So whatcha doin’ with this here letter?” he asked, waving the letter around casually.

I snapped out of the stupor I was in and quickly gathered the rest of the letters into my arms, standing right up, “Um…I’m supposed to be delivering these. Can I have it back?” I hesitantly held out my hand to take the letter back. It was the letter that Riley handed to me, with the multiple scribbles scrawled on. 

“Really?” the man kept it out of my reach, moving the letter every time my hand wandered too close, “Don’t recognize ya.”

That sentence struck me to my core. Oh. He really didn’t recognize me. But why did I…? I tried to attribute it to some fluke as he kept reaching for the letter. He was a stranger. A stranger and only that, nothing else. 

Maybe if I kept repeating it, I would stop feeling so weird.

“Well I’m new, so…”

“New ta the post?”

“No! Snake Eyes.”

“Huh. Weird.”

“Can I have the letter back?” I finally affirmed, getting irritated with the way he kept moving the letter around. 

“Not even a please?” he was grinning now. Was he enjoying this?

“Can I have the letter back…please?” I repeated, holding out my hand.

“Nah, I think I’m pretty interested in this,” he dangled the letter in front of his face, examining it curiously, “An Altosk letter? Interestin’ stuff ya got.”

“Look, it’s not mine! I need to deliver it to the guild!”

“Really? You were goin’ the wrong way.”

“Wait…what?” my eyes widened. I was following the right scribbles, wasn’t I? I checked over and over to make sure everything matched up!

Wait, he wasn’t lying, was he? He seemed a little sketchy, like a guy who would try to sell you something on the streets. 

“Yea. It’s down that way,” he pointed down the street from where I came to another street going the opposite direction. I stared down the street for a while. Really? But I really did check over and over. This had to be some sort of trick. Man sees a clueless young woman wandering around and springs into action. That’s what this situation was, right?

Ah…why did Riley ditch me?

“So yer name’s Robin, huh?”

I jumped, swinging my head back around to see the man looking through the now-opened letter, “Hey! Don’t read that!” I reached for it again, taking a step forward only for him to step back, pulling the letter again out of my reach.

“Why not? It’s only this,” he flipped the letter around, revealing a full page of different scribbles. In the corner, there was even a little, childish doodle of a stick figure in what looked to be my clothes.

I didn’t even bother trying to read what I couldn’t even read, “That’s not the point! That’s Riley’s letter! Put it back!”

“Well, I could give it back to ya…”

“You will, you mean!” I glared, trying not to curl my hands into fists with the other letters inside.

“Sure I will. But on one condition.”

“What?” I asked bluntly.

“Only if I get ta walk ya through town.”

He winked.

Did a stranger just wink at me?

Oh God, was this man a weirdo?

I took a step back, “Um…what?”

The man sighed dejectedly, “Ya know, that kinda reaction just hurts ol’ Raven’s feelin’s.” 

“I don’t even know you!”

“What? Can’t a guy get ta know a new lady in town?”

“Not when you steal her letter.”

“Well it’s not yer letter, now is it?” he was grinning again, twirling around the letter in his fingers, “But ya gotta find Altosk, right? Let ol’ Raven help ya out.”

I stared between the letter and the strange man I might possibly know. With the letter in his hands, my hands were tied. If Riley were here…or even if he gave me some kind of weapon to scare this guy off…then this would be a different story. I sighed. I didn’t have another option, did I?

If this guy took one step off the populated roads or even got near a dark alleyway, I was running.

“Fine,” I began sorting through the letters in my arms to comfortably hold them, “So I take it your name’s Raven?”

“How’d ya figure that out?” Raven joked, folding the letter back into the envelope while holding it high above my head.

I could help but let out an amused chuckle, “Intuition, I guess.”

“Good thing ta have,” Raven began lazily leading the way down the street, backtracking a little ways on my end, “So how’d ya roll Snake Eyes?”

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “Excuse me?”

“Ya don’t get mixed up with them unless ya have some terrible luck,” Raven explained, putting the letter somewhere inside his jacket.

“So what does that make all these guilds I’m delivering to?”

“All guilds run into some trouble.”

“Right,” I paused, “Well…I guess terrible luck’s a good way to describe my situation. I…well…I don’t remember my name.”

“Ain’t Robin yer name?”

“That’s what Riley called me,” I chuckled, shrugging, “But yea. I don’t remember anything. They just found me, and now I’m here.”

“Yea, that’s some bad luck right there,” Raven grinned, “Good thing ya have ol’ Raven ta drive all that away.”

“So you’re some sort of good luck charm? Strange, seeing how you stole one of my letters.”

“Fate works in mysterious ways.”

“Like in the way of an overeager man to walk with a woman down the street.”

“Overeager? It’s a blessin’ ta get ta walk with a pretty lady.”

“You’re not making a case for yourself, you know.”

“I definitely am.”

“The only way you could make it worse is if you said you were a part of a guild of pick-up artists.”

“And I’m happy ta say I’m not,” he chuckled, turning a corner, “Only goes up from here, right?”

“Right, I guess,” I couldn’t help but laugh. However, shortly after, he stopped right in his tracks, looking over to a small shop stand attached to a building. I looked at him quizzically, following his gaze.

“What?” I asked, looking back to him.

“Ya had letters ta Fortune’s Market, right?” he asked as he pointed over to the shop, “That’s their main outpost in town.”

“Oh! Right!” I looked down at my letters and furrowed my eyebrows. Fortune’s Market was the one with the big squiggle at the end, right? Or was it the one with the big loop in the middle of it? I flipped through a few, acutely aware that Raven was staring at me the entire time. Shit. This didn’t look good at all, did it? I kept looking through, pretending with some shame burning at my cheeks. 

Wordlessly, Raven reached down and pulled one letter from the pile, “Oh, there’s one.” He held it out to me. I took it graciously, matching the squiggles to a few other letters in the pile. I grinned and marched over to the booth, holding the letters up.

“Um…I have some letters from Snake Eyes!” I declared, holding out the letters. The shopkeeper, a shorter man around my height with short, trimmed black hair, perked up and looked me over.

“Oh, are you the new worker?” he asked.

“Yes…?” I confirmed. The shopkeeper took the letters and smiled.

“I’m Rac. Russell came by to fill me in a few hours ago. I’ll be sure to mail these over to the port,” he held out his hand to me, “I look forward to working with you, Ms. Robin.” Well, wasn’t he polite? I felt myself practically beaming at my first job well done, taking his hand and giving it a light shake.

“Me too. It’s nice to meet you, Rac! I…um…need to delivery some other letters, but I look forward to working with you, too!” I walked away as Rac gave me a short wave, returning to his duties at the stand. I walked back to Raven, the smile still on my face.

“All worked out?” he asked.

“Yea!” I looked back at Rac, who was already tending to some customers who had swooped in, “He’s nicer than I was expecting. A lot of these people in town look scary.”

“Ah, most of ‘em are jus’ puttin’ on airs,” Raven looked down at me knowingly, “But ya might wanna get yer readin’ straightened out soon.”

I froze, before scratching the back of my head nervously, “Was it that obvious?”

“Really obvious,” Raven confirmed, placing a hand on the back of my shoulder to lead me down the street a little further, “Sure Snake Eyes’ll set ya up with some learnin’. Lotsa people here come in not knowin’ how.”

I kept silent for a few moments, my cheeks burning a little from embarrassment. Not knowing how to read wasn’t exactly something I wanted to advertise. But I needed to know if I needed to deliver letters as payment to Snake Eyes. 

Maybe I could talk to Russell when I got back? He seemed like he would be a nice enough teacher. Niral was definitely out of the mix. I wondered what Niral would even act like as a teacher, but all of my outcomes led to a solid negative result. Riley might have the time that Russell lacked, but I had a feeling I would be teased the entire time. I sighed, rubbing my temple, dreading that talk. Oh, the girl who didn’t know what guilds were also doesn’t know how to read? Does she know anything aside from how to speak and some basic common sense?

“Well! Here we are,” Raven announced, breaking my intense concentration when we suddenly approached a larger building, more impressive than all the dull buildings that surrounded it. It looked like the largest building in town, to be completely honest, and this town already had some large buildings inside. A steady stream of people flowed in and out of the front door, each person carrying different airs about them. Some tough. Some small. All obviously from guilds, knowing exactly what they were doing.

I stared a little, slowly looking from the letters in my hand up to a large sign beside the main doorway. I looked back and forth a bit, matching up the right scribbles to the sign.

“So…is this Altosk?” I asked as I sorted through some letters, “Where exactly do I put these?”

“Right here’ll work fine,” Raven held out his free hand, seemingly eager to take the rest of the letters.

“No, I’m fine, thanks,” I replied, shielding my other letters from him and handing out my own free hand, “I need that letter back.”

“But I can take care of it,” Raven kept his hand out, frowning a little, “What? Don’t trust me?”

“I met you right down the street. Of course I don’t,” I replied flatly, not at all moved.

“But I’m with Altosk,” Raven finally said.

I turned away, walking closer to the building, “Right. I’ll believe that when I’m inside.”

Raven just laughed, following closely behind. I kept my letters closely guarded to my chest, one small part of me thinking that he might swipe them away from me. But thankfully, they remained with me as I passed through the doors, with Raven following suit. I was greeted with a long hallway with multiple doors on the sides, one leading forward with a grander door and a couple of strong looking men standing on either side of it. People wove through the hallway, each with their own purposes (and own weapons, most of which I stared at). At first, I felt pretty lost, not sure where to go. 

“Ya alright?” Raven spoke from behind, startling me from my thoughts. 

I turned my head to look back at him, “I’m fine, thanks.”

“Then whatcha doin’?”

I looked forward, trying to search for who exactly to talk to. Finally, I found someone who looked somewhat like they were in charge of something. They stood to the side of the hall, holding some papers and occasionally talking to the people who walked through. I took in a deep breath, approaching with the letters.

“Um…excuse me?” I asked, looking up at him. The man regarded me with a raised eyebrow. But it didn’t last long. Soon, he spotted something behind me. Someone. 

“Raven? Where’ve you been?”

Excuse me?

I turned right around, seeing Raven with a shit-eating grin on his face, looking positively giddy at whatever expression was on my face. Wait. He wasn’t lying when he said he was a member?

“Oh, ya know. Stuff,” Raven answered, turning his attention to the man, “What? The Don need me?”

Wait. Wasn’t the Don in charge of this whole city?

“Yea. Things’ve gotten a little hectic here.”

I stared in disbelief. Raven looked back down at me and held out his hand again. Wordlessly, I gave him the letters to Altosk. Well. This was certainly a thing that just happened. A weird man stole my letter and turned out to be the guy to give my letter to. 

It was only my first day on the job and I already felt completely done.

“Who’s she?” the man behind me asked.

“Ah, new contact fer Snake Eyes,” Raven answered.

At the mention of Snake Eyes, a new voice popped up from the crowd in the hall.

“Wait, what?”

I looked around, trying to see who said that. Raven only chuckled beside me.

“Well, speak of the devil…”

Soon, I could see the source, looking directly at me.

She was shorter than me, holding a slender build with some defined muscles on her bare arms. She had skin like the night sky and eyes the color of mahogany. Her long dreadlocks were tied up into a loose ponytail and fell short of her waist, some shorter locks hanging beside her face. She wore a stark white, sleeveless zip-up shirt, the collar hidden by a red bandana that hung prominently from it. Her pants were also white and worn, the bottoms of her pants more tanned with dirt than the rest. 

She strode towards me, looking me up and down with a raised eyebrow. And then, she looked around me. Around Raven. Looking for someone.

“If you’re the new contact, then where’s Riley?” she asked, looking at me with a scrutinizing eye. I honestly felt a little nervous under that gaze.

“Um…he ditched me?” I answered hesitantly, “I just gave these all to me, and…” I pointed vaguely to the letters in Raven’s hand, though he quickly hid them behind his jacket before the woman could snatch them.

“Nope. Altosk property now,” Raven said teasingly. The woman glared at him before looking back at me.

“Right. What’s your name? And where did you get those clothes?” she asked, her eyes still narrowed at me. They weren’t simple questions. She wanted to know the correct answers. I could tell this was more a test than an introduction.

“Robin…” I answered, “Or…at least that’s what Riley called me. And I got these this morning from Evelyn…” 

There was a moment longer of intense staring, but then she relaxed.

“Oh, damn, looks like you are her,” she huffed, “Jeez, why did Riley ditch? You can’t just be wandering around alone in a new place like this. Especially with the amnesia.”

“Don’t worry, she was in capable hands,” Raven chimed in.

“Right. You. Capable,” she glared at him again.

“Hey! Ol' Raven helped this pretty lady all the way here.”

“And I bet it was for some weird reason, right?” she sighed, looking back at me, “At the very least, you met our Altosk contact. That’s something, right?”

“Our?” I asked as Raven protested behind me.

She paused for a long while before holding a hand to her head, “Oh, right. Introductions. Shit, sorry. I’m Leona. Russell must’ve told you about me, right?”

“You’re a member, right?” I asked, tilting my head, “You’re the one with the hammock.”

She snorted, “Yea. That’s me.”

“Oh? Hammock? This I’m interested in,” Raven leaned in over my shoulder, butting back into the conversation.

“Oh really? Because we were just leaving,” Leona shoved his face away from me and looped one arm around me, leading me away.

“Hey!” Raven whined behind us. I turned my head and gave him a small wave. He just gave a half-hearted wave back before turning away, walking towards the large door at the end of the hallway. 

Soon, Leona and I were outside of Altosk’s headquarters. She sighed, unlooping her arm from mine and crossing her arms.

“So that’s Raven. We do most of our Altosk communication through him,” she shrugged, “We have to, honestly. Since we’re not union, we have to go directly to the Don, and to get to the Don you have to go through a creep. Isn’t life great?”

“He was certainly something,” I chuckled. And recognizable. I didn’t know whether this was a good clue or something that would just drive me crazy. I didn’t get any clues of my identity with him. Just the weird feeling that I should know something. 

Well, at least I didn’t pass out from that recognition.

Leona looked up at me and furrowed her eyebrows, “But you were serious, right? Riley ditched you? Russell told me he was supposed to be giving you the grand tour.”

“Yea, he did,” I sighed, “I’m not sure what happened. He saw something and ran, I guess.”

“I swear, this had better be for good reason and not him chasin’ some guy around…” Leona looked pissed, “What if you got lost or something?”

“Well, I technically already did,” I chuckled nervously.

“ _Did you, now_?” she was fuming, “Well it’s a good thing that I just so happened to be seeing a friend at Altosk. Isn’t it great for chance to make up for a huge fucking mistake? What a wonderful happenstance for something that should never have happened.” Her hands were curling up into fists. I feared for Riley’s life whenever Leona found him.

A blond man was going to die tonight, wasn’t he?

“But anyway, Raven didn’t say anything weird to you, did he?” Leona broke out of her angry stupor and looked back to me, “Where did you two go?”

“Well, he didn’t say anything too weird.” I think. “But he took me to Fortune’s Market and Altosk. That was about it.”

“Ah, good,” she sighed, brushing a few locks from her face, “I bet this isn’t the first day you were expecting. I swear, Snake Eyes is better than this most of the time. Riley’s just an asshole.”

“Oh, I believe you. It’s not your fault,” I answered, trying to give her a reassuring smile. She didn’t look too relieved from my expression. Instead, she turned herself towards the end of the road and stared for a while, thinking. Then, she looked up at me.

“Well, since I don't have anything else to do, I guess I’ll take over Riley’s duty. Did he give you any more letters than the ones for Altosk and Fortune’s Market?”

“Oh! Yea!” I pulled out some letters from my backpack, holding them out, “They’re just a few, but…”

“Oh, these’ll work perfect for basic training,” she sighed again, “But I doubt you’ll just learn the entire city just from one day of me being with you. Took me forever to learn the ins and outs of this place…” Her eyes looked around the streets again, thinking even more now.

“Yea…” I agreed.

“Well, might as well get you started,” Leona spoke, shrugging and leading the way through the city.

It was a long day of walking, and a lot to take in.

Leona took me to all of the headquarters of the other four major guilds in town, introducing me to every contact Snake Eyes had within the city. Each introduction was short, brief, and professional. And I was warned that I might even be approached on the streets to collect letters from them, seeing how help was sometimes needed on the fly. Most of them asked if I were a member myself, though Leona always gave a solid no to that question. It made sense. A lot of the jobs for Snake Eyes involved fighting…and I didn’t have any experience at all with that. I couldn’t even comprehend most of the weapons I saw through town. Large swords that couldn’t have existed in real life, weapons that seemed impossible to wield, weapons that didn’t look practical at all. We even stopped by a stand for some food, and half the menu was made up of fruits and dishes that didn’t seem real, either. 

Sometimes, this still seemed like a dream.

If it was, when would I wake up.

“By the way…” Leona spoke as we approached the Snake Eyes apartment, looking over at me, “I’ll teach you what you need to know. About reading and stuff. In the mornings.”

I tensed up as I climbed the stairs behind her, “Huh?”

“You are really obvious. And Raven slipped me this,” Leona fetched out a small piece of paper with hastily scrawled out letters on it, “I can help.”

“Ah…” I turned red, scratching the back of my head, “Thank you…”

“No need to thank me,” Leona’s expression softened, looking sisterly, “Look…when I came here…Riley had to teach me. I know how it feels. I don’t have to tell anyone else, if you don’t want.”

“I’d appreciate that, Leona…” I smiled at her, following behind as she entered the apartment. 

And immediately had to step out of the way of her arm as she reached behind, grabbing one of her daggers from her side, and throwing it into the main room.

“Whoa! Leo! What kinda greetin’ is that? Ya coulda killed me!” Riley called out. I blinked, seeing a dagger embedded into the wall beside Riley, who was holding a plate of fresh food.

“You lazy fucking asshole!” Leona seethed, storming into the apartment until she was inches from Riley, staring up at him with narrowed eyes, “You leave a girl with _amnesia_ by herself in Dahngrest? What the fuck were you thinking? You better have a good explanation before I _give_ you a reason not to escort a new worker.”

“What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” Riley argued, but his face grew pale as he looked over at me, “…Oh.”

“Hi, Riley,” I waved, not at all feeling sorry for what was about to go down. I closed the door behind me and locked it.

“Oh? _Oh?_ ” Leona reached to the wall and pulled out her dagger, “Is that really the only thing you have to say?”

“Look! Something came up! I’m really sorry, Robin! It was guild business!” 

“Guild business? Guild business was to make sure she knows what the fuck she’s doing!” Leona tensed up, “What kind of job is more important than that?”

“Uh…” Riley faltered, like he was trying to think of a story, “Look, let me just – ”

With her free hand, Leona punched him. Right in the face.

Ouch. That looked like it was going to hurt a while.

“I don’t to see your face for the rest of the night, got it?” Leona hissed between her teeth.

“Leo, we sleep in the same room,” Riley took a step back.

“Well, if you spent all day doing an important job, then you sure as hell have money for a room at the inn, don’t you?” Leona pointed to the door, “Out. Now.”

Riley didn’t give her any time to change her mind, running out and shutting the door behind him.

It was only minutes before the door opened again, this time revealing Russell with a twin-sized mattress strapped to his back.

“I saw Riley running down the street…” Russell looked between me, Leona, and the new mark on the wall, “What did he do?”

“He ditched Robin in the middle of Dahngrest,” Leona muttered, still fuming, “If I hadn’t overheard Raven in Altosk…then…”

Russell just sighed, “Ah. I’ll talk to him.” He unstrapped the mattress from his back and dragged it through the room. In the far corner of the main room, close to Leona’s hammock, Russell kicked aside some junk so the mattress could flop down perfectly.

“Oh damn, is that new?” Leona perked up, walking over curiously.

“Yea. We had some extra cash, so why not?” Russell looked over at me, smiling gently, “This’ll be your bed. We have some extra blankets in the closet that you’re free to have. Well…maybe I should get some more, as an apology.” He scratched the back of his head with an apologetic look on his face.

“Oh, you didn’t do anything,” I spoke, walking up to the mattress and smiling, “I’ll be fine with whatever you have.”

“I’m in charge, though,” Russell looked down at me, “Riley is sometimes…aloof. I should have predicted that. I’ll let him know that it’s unacceptable behavior.”

“How about you have Riley pay for the blankets?” Leona called out with a sly grin on her face.

I couldn’t help but grin as well, “That’d be a nice apology gift from him.”

Russell laughed, “Alright. Well, let me go hunt him down…” He left the apartment on his search for Riley.

“Well that takes care of that,” Leona spoke, “Jeez, wonder where Niral is. I’m starving. Robin, you want something?” She wandered over to the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge.

I shook my head, “Actually, I think I’m going to be heading to bed. I’m feeling tired.” Which was strange. I felt like I should eat, but ever since that mattress came into the apartment, I felt like I wanted to sleep forever. It might have been from the previous night and the day’s activities combined. 

As I walked to the closet to find some extra, scratchy blankets, Leona rose an eyebrow, continuing to rummage, “Alright. Just make sure to eat in the mornin’.”

“Yea, I will,” I spoke, dragging a pillow and blanket over to my new home. I didn’t even bother to change out of my new clothes, just resting my backpack beside my mattress, taking off my shoes, and taking off my bracers. 

And as soon as my head hit the pillow, I closed my eyes and found myself in that white space.

_Instead this time, there was someone standing in front of me._

_Tanned skin like the earth, red hair poofed up on his head, a slender figure draped in elegant white robes, tied together with golden cords. His eyes were closed in a serene concentration, looking more akin to a painting than an actual person. However, as I stared at him, his eyes suddenly opened to grey eyes lined with long, black eyelashes._

 _And he took in a deep, sharp breath._

_“Why are you here again?” he asked, expression drenched in worry as he took steps towards me. But no matter how many steps he took, he never seemed to get closer. No matter how he reached towards me with long, slender fingertips, he never touched me._

_I opened my mouth to ask the thousands of questions in my head, demand the answers that I wanted to hear. But nothing by air left my throat. I looked down to look at my hands, almost translucent against the white._

_I blinked and opened my eyes again. The white and the man were gone._

_Instead, I was in the middle of a city._

_I stood on a sidewalk, shivering against intense cold. It was dark, street lights illuminating patches of the snow-covered pavement to my right and the harbor to my left. To my right were impossibly large towers, skyscrapers that touched the clear sky with only a handful of stars twinkling above. To my left was a populated harbor, countless ships docked. One historical, with grand sails and intricate the design. Several military in design, with sharp edges and a cold, grey exterior. One ferry scooted across the light-covered water, casting delicate ripples upon the surface as countless people mingled on board, the chatter a distant dream to me._

_“ ------ !”_

_I heard someone call my name. I looked forward to see two people waving at me. Both female. But I couldn’t see their face. I could only see their coats, their clothes, their skin reddened by the cold. But their face was a blur. If I focused too much, my brain started to pound so hard I couldn’t see straight._

_So I didn’t._

_“I’ll be right there!” I called back, waving. I took a few steps forward. Maybe if I got closer, I could remember what they looked like. Maybe if I talked to them, they would say my name. Maybe if they said my name, I could have it again._

_I blinked._

_I was sitting in front of a large screen, a controller in my hands. I was looking up at one of the girls from before, chatting away about something I couldn’t hear. And then I looked over to see several images play by the screen. The television._

_It was a cartoon. An animation. Several characters appeared on the screen._

_And then I saw a symphony of pink and purple. A drawn version of clothes that I had seen that day._

_Before I could get to the face, my vision cut out. Tight hands gripped my shoulders, and I opened my eyes to look at the red-headed man from before, his expression mixed between concerned and angry._

_“Don’t do this!” his words were hushed, but firm, “Don’t you know what I’ve done for you? You can’t do this!”_

_I looked at him square in the eye, my voice finally coming to me._

_“Where are Sarah and Alicia?”_

I woke up sweating in bed, taking in fast, shaken breaths. My eyes were glued to the dim ceiling, some traces of morning sunlight peeking through the blinds.

I couldn’t help but feel like I had been kicked right out of the dream. Forced awake by some force. By that man. The man with red hair.

“Hey.”

I immediately sat up, startled. Sitting beside my mattress was Riley, looking tired, but otherwise concerned. I couldn’t help but notice he was sitting weird, his left leg hidden from view.

I took in a few breaths, collecting myself, “Hey.”

“You were movin’ ‘round in yer sleep,” Riley ran a hand through his messy hair, “Bad dream?”

I chuckled, “I thought Leona kicked you out.”

“Russ managed to talk her outta that. Just had to wait till she was sleepin’,” Riley chuckled sleepily along with me, “She likes stayin’ up late, though.”

“Poor you,” I rubbed my eyes, feeling groggy from a restless night.

“I know, I’m terrible,” Riley sighed, “But seriously, do ya wanna talk ‘bout it?”

I sighed, “I…honestly don’t remember most of it. It doesn’t make sense.” It was half a lie. I could remember it as clear as day, but it still didn’t make much sense to me. What did any of it mean, anyway? 

“I hope weird dream shit isn’t a constant with ya,” Riley shifted a little, “First yer passin’ out stuff, now this.”

“I honestly hope so, too,” I admitted, “I’d like to get a good sleep for once.”

“Definitely deserve one, too,” Riley chuckled sheepishly, “ ‘Specially after what I pulled on ya.”

“What exactly were you even doing?” I asked.

“Business stuff,” Riley shrugged, “Look, I’m too tired to explain.”

“Right…” I only half believed that.

“But Rob, I wanna make it up to ya. I mean, more than a blanket or whatever else Russ makes me do,” Riley looked genuine, “Look, it was shitty and uncalled for. Whatever ya want me to do, then say it.”

“Anything?” I rose an eyebrow at him.

“That sounds bad,” Riley chuckled, “If yer thinkin’ somethin’ weird, then buy me dinner first.”

I smacked his arm, and he just began laughing quietly.

But then I began thinking. About the dream. About the names I said. About the pictures I saw on the screen.

“Actually…there is one thing…” I looked down, slowly mulling through the request I wanted to make, “I remembered something. Not really anything important. But…I remembered my friends. Their names, at least. I remember saying them.”

“Really? That’s a start,” Riley perked up, sitting a little straighter, “You remember what they look like or anythin’?”

I shook my head, “No…just their names.”

“Ah…” he scratched the back of his head.

There was a small pause between us. I waited for a while, trying to think of what I wanted.

“I don’t know…” I looked down, a little nervous, “If you find anyone by the name of Sarah or Alicia…can you tell me?”

“Ya know, it’s hard ta find specific people with those names. Could be a lot of those ‘round.”

“I know,” I couldn’t help but chuckle, “But it’s the only lead I have. Please?”

Riley yawned, “Yea, alright. I’ll check once I feel alive.”

“Thank you…” I smiled at him, and he smiled back with a sleepy look in his eye.

“Well, I gotta get some sleep. Sure you should, too,” Riley spoke. I nodded, and watched him lean over to the floor, beginning to crawl back to his mattress. And as he did, I noticed something. He was wearing loose pants, but the bottom half of his left leg was flat and empty. I observed silently before my eyes finally met his area, seeing a metal prosthetic leg embedded with what looked to be a blastia sitting to the side.

Huh. Interesting.

I laid back down on my mattress, turning over to the side. I slowly closed my eyes, and thankfully, the last couple hours of my sleep were dreamless.


	3. To Fight

The next morning and the days to come were a rocky start to what would become my routine. Wake up, have breakfast made by Niral, receive letters from Russell, leave to deliver them and get lost a few times, pick up requests from certain guilds, and end the day with returning home to have dinner and sleep, ready to repeat the cycle again as soon as the sun rose. It was difficult at first, trying to memorize the layout of the city, but if I ever got lost, Leona seemed to track me down. She personally didn’t have much work to do around the city, with Russell and Niral taking the lion’s share of the guild requests lately. Whenever we met up, she would go over the basics of reading to me casually, as if it were an everyday part of conversation. Telling me what certain signs said, asking me to read some of them myself. It was an unorthodox way of learning, but it helped me at least learn the basics of what I needed to get the job done.

My nights were always a gamble. Some of them were spent wandering alone in that white space, others spent dreaming of shadows I could never recall in the morning. I never saw that red-headed man from my dreams after I saw him last, though sometimes I could hear his voice whispering to me in that white space, asking me over and over to stop searching for answers, to get used to this life without memories.

Though sometimes, shreds of information would leak into the forefront of my mind.

“What’s vesperia?” I asked Leona one day, after she found me circling around a block.

“Isn’t that one of the stars in the sky, or something?” Leona asked back.

“A star?” 

“I think so. I think I heard someone say it was the brightest one. I wouldn’t know for sure, though,” Leona looked at me with a raised eyebrow, “Why?”

“No reason,” I shrugged, “I just…overheard it. It sounded interesting.”

I never mentioned I had heard it in a dream, accompanied by that screen.

Weeks passed, eventually, and I had fallen completely into the routine. 

However, there were still some things I was getting used to.

Like being followed.

I noticed them one morning. Two men, dressed completely in black, with hoods over their heads. The only main feature I was able to see were pairs of red eyes, almost glowing in the shadows.

I only noticed them because of their distinct appearance. And it was a good thing, too. Because they were everywhere I went. Whenever I spotted them, they wouldn’t look my way. But they were never outside of my general vicinity. I changed areas multiple times that day, on my routine. I even changed my route a bit to see if my suspicions were correct. But there was nothing I could do. They were always there.

It came to the point where I felt my heart pounding, worried about what they wanted from me. I could feel myself beginning to panic, trying to find help but not seeing any familiar faces.

My route finally brought me to Altosk.

I walked inside. While I rarely went to Altosk the few times I had gone, I usually exchanged letters with Raven, who seemed to always have something weird to say. However, that day just had to be the first time he wasn’t there. 

Instead, I found one of the other guildmembers standing at Raven’s usual spot. 

“Um…is Raven here?” I asked, holding the Altosk letters for the day.

“Hm? Ah, he’s been gone for a few days now,” the guildmember replied.

“Oh.” Why did this have to be the day I found out? “Is he coming back anytime soon…?”

He chuckled, “I wouldn’t count on that. Sometimes he just leaves for really long periods of time. These are for the Don, right? I’ll hand them over.”

Great. But that didn’t solve my initial dilemma. 

I handed the letters over, exchanged light pleasantries with the guildmember, and trembled beside the front door for a while. I knew my pursuers would be outside when I finally emerged. What did they want with me? Why was I the one getting followed? I wasn’t a guildmember or anything!

But I didn’t remember my past. What if I was involved in weird activities? How was I supposed to know?

People were beginning to stare, taking note of my extended stay in the building. I felt my cheeks grow red.

Maybe Evelyn could help me…? I didn’t know where the guild was during the day…but she was at least always working. I hadn’t seen her since she gave me my new clothes, and I had been meaning to see here again. Oh…but why did it have to be under these circumstances?

I meekly walked outside. And, of course, the shadowy men were still out there, pretending to be idly chatting about something. Did they know that I could see them? Did they know I was aware of their game?

I kept my head high and continued my walk, breaking my routine again to head directly towards Evelyn’s shop. And, naturally, they followed suit.

I passed corners, went through crowded streets, and zipped through stalls on the side of the main roads. But no matter what I went through, the red-eyed men persisted. 

As I walked through a less-crowded street, I could feel their eyes bare into my back. I could feel them like bugs crawling up my back, and I was powerless to stop it. I was unarmed with nothing but a backpack full of letters.

I heard their footsteps approach. Going faster. Getting closer. Until it felt like they were right beside me. 

Then, someone slid in beside me, laying an arm across my shoulders. I tensed up, frozen in place.

“Hey, Rob, where’ve ya been?”

My head jerked up to see Riley standing beside me. While his expression seemed relaxed, I could tell he was tense. His jaw was locked in place, muscles tight and at the ready. And his eyes were stone cold as he turned his head to look behind me.

“Can I help you guys?” Riley asked, a threat dripping beneath his words.

I heard no reply. Just the sound of two pairs of footsteps retreating from the alley.

When their footsteps finally left, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Riley…” I looked up at him, trying to find the right words to say.

“So you were headed to Ev’s?” Riley pushed me along the road as if nothing happened, “Good idea. I bet she’s been dyin’ to put some more clothes on ya.”

“Riley…”

“I know, I know. Her tastes are fuckin’ weird but whatever floats her boat, right?”

“Riley.”

“But I’m sure she misses ya. She was askin’ all ‘bout ya when I came ta get my jacket patched up. Good thing ta visit every now ‘n then, right?”

“Riley!”

I forced myself to stop right in my tracks, looking up at him with a confused look on my face. Riley stopped as well, looking down at me with that same tense look. His attempts to look casual were terrible.

“What?” he finally asked, breaking a pregnant pause between us.

“What…was that?” I asked, “Those guys…they were following me.”

“That happens sometimes in a big town like this. Ya jus’ gotta be careful.”

“Why are you so tense then, if it sometimes happens?” 

“I’m not tense.”

“Yes you are.”

Riley roughly began to walk me down the road again, his arm pushing me along, “It’s yer imagination.”

“Riley!” I spoke again, wiggling away from him and stopping in my tracks.

Riley stopped, staring at me with an unrelenting gaze. I flinched, faltering for a few moments before I found my voice again, the questions bubbling up in my mind.

“Who were those guys?” I asked.

He sighed, looking away from me with an irritated look on his face. It took moments for him to answer, him occasionally looking at me only to falter and look away, as if he were trying to build up some kind of story in his head. I kept a level eye on him, trying to see what exactly he was thinking about, even if I couldn’t just see inside of his brain. Finally, his expression hardened, looking at me with an impassable look.

“Look…thing’ll be easier if ya just forget this happened, alright?” Riley sighed, running a hand through his hair, leaving his blond locks sticking out in every direction from the sweat on his hands, “Ya gotta trust me, alright?” He looked at me seriously.

I kept my eyes on him for a long while before I let out a breath of air, “Fine. But if it happens again, I’m telling Russell.”

“Ya won’t have to. I swear,” he swallowed, and immediately his serious demeanor dissolved into his usual casual look, “Alright, so Ev is gonna love some visitors. Bet ya can guess how many new customers she gets nowadays…”

I followed along, laughing along as Riley tried to lighten the mood. But that moment never left me. Even through the visit with Evelyn, who dressed me up in so many strange things that I barely knew what to do with myself. It wasn’t until Riley walked me back to the Snake Eyes apartment, safe and sound, that something happened to completely catch me off guard.

It happened over dinner, with the members of Snake Eyes and I gathered haphazardly around the center table of the room. Russell, Niral, and I had taken the couch. Leona just sat cross-legged on the floor, not bothered enough to fetch another chair to sit in. And Riley was lying down on his mattress, his prosthetic leg already off for the night, grounding him until morning. 

“Hey Russ,” Riley spoke out, raising his head from his plate as he looked over at the guildmaster, “How ‘bout we start trainin’ Rob?”

A silence fell over the group, and I looked at him with confusion in my eyes, not sure what I needed to say about it. Russell shifted in his seat beside me, looking at Riley.

“Do you mean as a guild member?” Russell asked. I tensed up.

“Wait…what?” I couldn’t help but look between the guild members around me. Niral didn’t seem phased at all. And strangely, neither did Leona.

“I mean, we haven’t found anyone who knows her. ‘N I’m pretty sure stayin’ in Dahngrest ain’t gonna help her much anymore,” Riley grinned, “People already knows she’s with us. Just needs some trainin’ before she’s ready fer the test.”

Test? What test?

Russell leaned back, turning his head to look at me, a hand on his chin, “Is that something you would be interested in, Robin?”

“I-I mean…it’s a little sudden,” I automatically spoke, taking some time to think of the rest of my answer, “It’s true I haven’t found anyone around here…but fighting? I don’t know anything about that.”

“Well it’s not just fighting,” Leona chimed in, “We travel the world when we need to. Seeing different places…meetin’ different people. My missions usually don’t involve fighting.”

“It’s true,” Russell spoke, “We primarily fight to be self-reliant. We need to be able to navigate the paths outside the barriers. Though, I typically take bodyguard work.” He chuckled, scratching the back of his head.

“Yea. As long as ya know the basics, you’ll pass the test in no time!” Riley grinned happily at me.

I still wasn’t really convinced that this was a simple thing, “So…what’s the test?”

Russell spoke up this time, “The test is to kill a particular monster that we mark with a bandanna. It’s merely a test to show that you’re ready to feasibly fight and manage on your own.”

“Don’t worry, one of us’ll tag along ta make sure ya won’t die,” Riley grinned mischievously.

“Die?!” What the hell kind of a test was this?

“Riley…” Russell sent a warning glare to Riley before looking back at me, “There isn’t a chance of that. We choose a monster based on what we feel should be the kind you’ll be facing. And we’ll always step in if we feel your life is in any danger.”

“But you won’t pass if that happens,” Leona warned, getting up to put her empty plate in the kitchen.

“Is she to take the test now?” Niral asked, looking at Russell with bored eyes.

“Of course not, Niral,” Russell looked back at me, “I’ll be training you first, before we even think of giving you a test.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, “Haven’t you been busy?”

“Fortunately, there’s a lull as of late for my particular requests,” Russell looked over at Riley, “And Riley hasn’t been pulling his weight recently. I’m sure he can take whatever missions I have yet to complete.”

I looked over at Riley with a confused look on my face. Haven’t been pulling his weight? But what was he doing all day? Riley sent a knowing look my way, his eyes narrowing as a sign that I shouldn’t say anything.

Wait…this wasn’t related to those men, was it?

“What?” Riley immediately relaxed, rolling onto his back, “Can’t a guy take a vacation once in a while?”

“Not when we have to buy food,” Russell sighed, looking back over at me, “I’m afraid I’m self-taught, but I hope I can be of help. I’ll pick up some weapons for you tomorrow morning.”

I felt myself grow pale, “You mean…I’m going to have to carry that…?” I pointed a weak arm towards the large sword on the wall. Russell followed my finger, only to laugh immediately.

“No, no, I’m not sure you could lift that, even if I gave you a blastia on day one!” 

“Oh yea, Russell,” Leona called out from the kitchen, “Do you need me to pick up a bodhi blastia while I’m out, tomorrow? Could probably get a nice deal at the market.”

“That’d be great. Just take it out of your reward money. I’ll reimburse you,” Russell called back, “But Robin, I’ll have you start out with a short blade. I’m trained in both…I just prefer the larger one.”

“Yea…I have a feeling I’ll prefer the smaller one,” I replied with a nervous laugh. 

On the far side of the room, Riley sat aside his plate and rolled over, his back to us for the rest of the night.

The morning was a usual morning, like any other.

Well, except for Riley’s whining.

“Why do I have ta carry all these letters? I’m bodyguardin’ some Fortune’s Market guys all day!” Riley groaned as he slid my backpack onto his back, not enjoying one bit of it, “Backpacks weigh me down!”

“Shouldn’t be heavier than that leg, ya wimp,” Leona replied in an irritated groan, not enjoying his whining just as much as he enjoyed having letter duty.

“Both Robin and I will be out for the majority of the day. And certain duties still need to happen,” Russell explained, not at all phased by Riley’s complaints, “Perhaps if you had been taking your missions, I could have had Niral help.”

In the kitchen, I heard a small, stifled laugh.

“I heard that, Niral!” Riley yelled.

“It was the water. It’s boiling,” Niral replied in their usual monotone voice.

Riley just groaned in response.

I handed him a small list of destinations, a habit I had gotten into since Leona began teaching me to read, “Here’s where all the letters are going, today.” They were just a list of the various guilds that had letters to be delivered. Apparently, there were a lot of rejected missions, from what I was able to read on the outside of the letter.

Riley took one look at my list, “Rob, yer handwritin’ is shit.”

My face went red, scratching the back of my head.

“Better than yours,” Leona chimed in with a deadpan expression on her face.

“Shut up, Leo,” Riley cursed, storming off to the front door, “Alright, I’m off.”

There was a chorus of half-hearted goodbyes across the room.

“Alright, alright, don’t be too broken-hearted,” Riley let out a dramatic sigh, overacting his departure like he was a dog being kicked into the doghouse.

Doghouse? What? Where had I heard that phrase before?

I didn’t have long to sit there wondering, as soon, Russell approached me with a sheathed short sword and a small backpack.

“Alright, I believe we’re all set. Strap this to your belt,” he handed me the sword, and I immediately strapped it on, the weight feeling strange to me, “And here’s our supplies for the day.” He handed me the backpack, which I put on without question.

“Oh man, good luck,” Leona spoke as she walked up to the weapon’s wall, grabbing a pair of daggers, “You’re gonna need it.”

“Well…I’ll try,” I spoke, laughing nervously.

“Russ…” Leona looked over at Russell, “Don’t be too hard on her, you hear?”

“I’ll be as gentle as I can,” Russell spoke with his usual smile, “Alright, let’s be off.”

We both traveled to the outskirts of Dahngrest, on a different side of the town than where Evelyn’s shop was. It was an empty area, with the stony, dry landscape filling in the gap between the last house and the edge of the barrier, which loomed above. There was plenty of space to move around, and there were signs that other people practiced here was well. Marks from blades colliding with the earth, broken arrows scattered about, and broken circles in the ground like a boulder had been dropped there. However, this early in the morning, Russell and I were the only visitors.

Once we both set our things aside, huddled together in a spot near the line that marked the end of the barrier, Russell ordered me into a proper position, wielding the short sword as a two-handed blade.

Russell couldn’t help but chuckle as my thin arms struggled to keep the blade up, “Well, perhaps you weren’t a fighter in your past. That’s for sure.”

“You make it look so light!” I exclaimed, trying to think of anything but the weight in my arms.

“Well, it’s partially my bodhi blastia,” Russell explained, holding up a gold bracelet with the blastia embedded into it, “But I don’t want to start you out on that. It’s meant to enhance your abilities, not be used as a crutch.”

“So when do I get one?” 

“Well…” Russell paused as my short sword began to sag towards one side, “Let’s just see how today goes, Robin.”

It turns out, Leona’s warning to Russell had been legitimate. I always thought Russell was a nice guy. But he was a demon when it came to training.

We quickly gave up sword training when it was hard for me to even do basic things with the sword, mainly due to my weak upper body strength. Which meant that Russell decided to start training in other ways.

“Come on, you can’t expect to get better by giving up,” Russell spoke coldly, looking down on me as I struggled through some push-ups.

I looked at him, huffing angrily, “This is just the first day!”

“If you want to be ready to join Snake Eyes, you’ll need to start strong. Go run a lap.”

“Around what?”

“To the main bridge and back.”

The main bridge entrance to Dahngrest. The one I passed when I first arrived. Which just so happened to be sitting in the distance. A good mile or so away. I gawked at the request, looking back and forth between the bridge and Russell, whose expression let me know he was not playing around one bit.

“Are you serious?” I stared at him wide-eyed.

“You walk around Dahngrest every day. This should be a simple thing. You’ll need to build endurance, anyway.”

“But it’s not running.”

“Would you rather practice sword technique?” Russell spoke, motioning to the sword discarded with our things. His tone made me realize that it was either running or the sword. No third option in sight.

“Fine, fine!” I spoke, breaking out into a sprint, Russell watching closely from behind.

The next week was filled with the exact same torment. Russell waking me up early, practically working me to the ground until I could barely even function, and then heading home to practically pass out on the mattress only to do it all over again the next day. Meanwhile, Riley took charge of my usual job. Leona and Niral were off doing their own missions within the city. Which just left me to the mercy of Russell the entire time.

On the eighth day, when I finally made it back to the Snake Eyes apartment after an entire day of hell, I was practically grounded on my mattress, barely able to move.

“Rob…don’t ya wanna bathe?” Riley asked from the couch, leaning over the arm, “Ya smell.”

“Don’t even start, Riley,” I moaned in the corner.

“Jeez, someone’s whinin’. Russ’ trainin’ ain’t that bad,” Riley shrugged.

“Says the one who moaned about delivering letters,” spoke Leona from her hammock, flipping a page in a book she was reading.

“Look, that’s borin’. Trainin’ with Russ is way better than that,” Riley sighed, turning over in the couch to look at Niral, who was sitting quietly with a book of their own, “Niral, can’t ya do somethin’?”

Niral didn’t even flinch from their position, “The pain is the result of muscle growth and basic exertion. Using healing artes would simply reverse the progress and revert her muscles back to their original state.”

“Cool. I didn’t understand any of that,” Riley sighed, “Rob…if I drag ya into the tub ‘n spray ya down, would that be cool?”

“I might actually kill you, if that’s cool,” I replied in a deadpan tone. Leona snickered from her hammock.

“Says the girl who won’t even get up,” Riley groaned and stood up, walking over to me, “Come on. Let’s go.”

“What? No way!” I exclaimed, rolling to the wall to get some distance.

“Leo?” Riley looked over to Leona, a small smirk on his face.

A smirk that was equally reflected on Leona’s face as she shut her book, jumping down from her hammock, “Let’s clean up our newest recruit.”

“Leona! Really?” I could barely fight back as Riley and Leona jointly scooped me up and carried me outside. Out at the back side of the apartment, there were several tubs that looked eerily similar to wide barrels, each equipped with blastia underneath that heated up any water that went into them…with enough time, of course. There were also tall walls between them, giving the illusion of privacy.

“Let go, guys!” I squirmed in their arms, ignoring all of the pain in my muscles.

“Fill ‘er up, Leo!” Riley was obviously enjoying this way too much. Leona dropped my legs and practically skipped to one of the hoses, filling up the middle tub with a gleeful grin on her face.

“Leona…” I whined, trying to summon my best puppy dog eyes.

Leona just grinned, “Welcome to Snake Eyes, Robin!” 

“I thought we had something special!” I called back, just getting a laugh out of her. And the second the tub was full enough, Leona returned to help hoist me to the tub.

“Alright Leona…3…”

They began swinging me.

“Riley! Leo!”

“2!”

“Stop! I need privacy!”

“1!”

“Have mercy on me!”

“Go!”

They tossed me right into the freezing cold water with my clothes still on.

I immediately emerged and shivered, glaring at them as I tried to get out, “You guys are such jerks!”

“Nope, yer stayin’ right there,” Riley walked over and pushed my head back underwater. I quickly emerged and kept trying to get out, with both Leona and Riley making sure I couldn’t make my escape.

“It’s freezing!” 

“The blastia’ll kick in any second. You’ll live,” Leona chuckled.

“Um…” a new voice entered the backyard tubs, “Am I interrupting something?”

Both Riley and Leona turned right around and smiled, “Russell! Hello!” They spoke in unison, both like siblings who had just got caught by their parent. 

“What’s going on?” Russell seemed more confused than anything else.

“We were just helping Robin to the tub! I was just going to get her a change of clothes!” Leona smiled and hummed as she walked away towards the steps, giving me an overtly cheery smile as she left.

“And I was just helpin’ her out. What’re friends for?” Riley smiled at me.

I rose my middle finger at him.

Instead of looking insulted, he looked more confused, “Huh? That’s that for?”

“Uh…” I looked down at my hand and pulled it back underwater, “Nothing.” I felt a little embarrassed for that. Wasn’t it supposed to be an insult? Did they not know that?

Or rather…how did I know that?

“Anyway, I’ll leave her to her peace,” Riley grinned and left, also bounding up the stairs.

Which just left me with Russell.

After we returned from training that day, Russell hadn’t really spoken to me. He had been rather short with me the past few days, and had gone straight to the bedroom once we returned. Now, however, he looked a little more relaxed, carrying a change of clothes and a towel, obviously intent on using a different tub.

We looked at each other for a moment, both a little uncomfortable, and then Russell walked over to another tub station, disappearing behind one of the taller walls. I sighed, feeling the water begin to warm up from the blastia. Well, I was already in the tub, and leaving right after Russell arrived didn’t seem right. I began shucking my clothes, tossing them on the ground and trying to relax in the heat of the tub. I heard Russell do the same, removing his clothes and filling up the tub.

When I first arrived at Dahngrest, bathing like this had bothered me to no end. It was so embarrassing to be bathing in the open air in what looked like barrels. It just seemed so weird and exposing. And it didn’t help that the Snake Eyes members didn’t seem to have any shame anymore. In my first week, I had walked outside to take a bath only to see Niral casually standing outside of their tub, waiting for the water to warm. Completely naked, of course. And I had a similar run-in with Leona soon after. The only one I had never encountered in any sense was Riley, who preferred taking his baths in odd hours of the night when no one else was awake.

However, this was just awkward now. I tried to keep silent, letting the warm water soothe my aching muscles. Russell had always been a pleasant guy, but that training was brutal. That was a side of him I hadn’t been expecting at all.

“Are you alright, Robin?”

He broke the silence, calling out his question from behind the wooden barrier between us.

“I’m just really sore,” I spoke, chuckling more to fill the silence than anything else.

“Ah, that is understandable…” Russell said before silence overcame us once again. 

I sat there for a while, quickly realizing that Leona was either taking too long to find my night clothes or had forgotten about that entirely. Oh jeez. I wasn’t going to spend the night out in a heated tub, was it?

“Robin…” Russell spoke again, interrupting my thoughts, “I would like to apologize if I seemed overtly harsh this past week.”

“Well…yea,” I spoke, “You were definitely harsh.”

He sighed, “I do realize that you haven’t really dealt with fighting. I tried to keep it in mind…but it’s hard to break my habits.”

“Is that how you train the others?” I asked.

He chuckled, “No, only Riley. Leona and Niral already knew their skills when we found them, though I have sparred with them several times. Leona’s even watched my training sessions with Riley before.”

“I feel bad for Riley, then,” I laughed, though it slowly faded out when I realized that Russell was not laughing along with me. I looked towards the wood barrier, growing silent.

“Well…that’s how he asked to be trained,” Russell took in a deep breath, “He wanted to be taught exactly as I was taught. Not the same techniques, of course…but the same discipline. Whenever I tried to go easy, he would get furious with me. And back in the day, Riley’s tantrums were a little more dangerous than him whining about letters.”

“What do you mean, dangerous?” I asked.

“Going outside the barrier alone,” Russell paused for a while, “And fighting monsters until he could barely function.”

“What? How is he not dead?”

“Sometimes I wonder that, too,” Russell chuckled, “But let’s just say that quite a lot of those scars are from those days. He never got away completely fine.”

I paused, remembering all of the scars littered across Riley’s skin, some small and some larger, from more serious injuries. And then I remembered the largest injury of all.

“And…his leg…?”

There was a long pause before Russell spoke again, “No. That…was different.” I could hear him shift around in his tub. I looked down into the water, wondering whether I should have even asked that question. However, he soon began speaking again.

“I used to be a member of the Hunting Blades,” Russell began.

“Wait, what? Really?” I was surprised. The Hunting Blades was the only guild that Snake Eyes explicitly did not do business with, no matter what.

He chuckled, “I know. I joined when I was just fourteen, actually. A lot of members in the guild always have some sort of personal vengeance against monsters…but I was just in it to survive. I didn’t have much, back then. I could fight, so the Hunting Blades took me in as a fighter.”

“It was hard work, but it was easy for me. We usually just went after the largest monsters in the area and occasionally taking bounties. It kept us all fed, so there was nothing to complain about,” Russell paused for a while, thinking over what he would say next.

“Thirteen? That’s young,” I spoke up, “How long ago was that?”

“Too long,” Russell answered with a smile, “Must have been…fifteen years ago.”

“Damn,” I spoke under my breath. Russell chuckled, though remained silent for a while longer.

“But there’s one day in the Hunting Blades I’ll never forget,” Russell began, his tone growing darker, “We were on our way out to take a bounty in Hallure, but on the way…we heard this yelling. It must have been a mile or so out from Heliord…and we also recognized the call of a monster, so we went to kill it for some sport.”

“Only…when we got there, we saw this toppled over caravan. Blood was everywhere, just soaking into everything I could see. No matter how many years pass…I can always remember it as if it were yesterday. Monsters had swarmed it, destroying everything and everyone inside,” Russell’s voice trembled, “And imperial soldiers should have came. They were close enough to the barrier. But it was like they were completely ignored.”

“At the end of everything…we only managed to grab one survivor,” Russell paused taking in a deep breath, “He couldn’t have been older than nine years old. The monsters had already gotten to him before we arrived, and when we finally took him to the doctors in Heliord…his leg was a lost cause, even with artes.”

I froze, slowly realizing who Russell was talking about.

“And of course, the Hunting Blades wanted to leave right after, like nothing happened!” his voice had a flash of anger to it, “They said it wasn’t their problem. The kid was from the empire, after all, and he was already safe. And to them, that was enough.”

“But when I took one look at the kid, shaking his bed, asking where his parents were, where his sister was…I couldn’t leave,” Russell sighed, “And that’s the first time I met Riley.”

I was completely silent, my eyes now glued to the wooden barrier between us. 

“I just remember hearing the soldiers saying these horrible things. Saying that Riley’s family deserved what came to them. I knew that if I left him there…maybe something would happen to him,” Russell paused, chuckling a little, “Sorry, you must be hearing a lot more than you bargained for.”

“No…it’s fine,” I found my voice, speaking up, “I just…I had no idea about all of this. Did you…quit after that?”

“Yea. Before I got Riley out of there, I was formally kicked out of the guild by Clint,” he chuckled, “It was definitely a hard life after that. We didn’t really have a place to go except the streets. Ended up using all my money to get Riley a prosthetic so he could actually walk on his own again. At first, I thought I was being an idiot for doing all of this for him…but after seeing him walk again for the first time was just amazing. He even started teaching himself to fight. He’s really come so far.”

There was a smile in his voice, and I couldn’t help but smile as well, “You really care about him, don’t you?”

“After all these years, it’s hard not to. He’s like the brother I never had,” Russell chuckled, “We did actually try joining the Hunting Blades again, years later. I was just turning twenty…which would put Riley at fifteen. We were having trouble finding work, so we figured that they could take us in. I had only gotten better, and Riley had made so much progress over the years. Only Clint shut us down. Said they had no use with a guy with one leg.”

“What…?” I was shocked. I had seen Riley fight hand to hand before, and it was impressive. He would always keep himself grounded, pivoting around his target with ease. And having a metal leg certainly helped up the damage in kicking.

“Well, he wasn’t quite as refined as he was today…but they didn’t even give him a chance,” Russell sighed, “So…that’s how Snake Eyes was founded. A guild where we belonged and got work through. Not having to rely on anyone else.”

“Wow…so I guess that’s why the Hunting Blades is exclusively off the table,” I spoke, already knowing the obvious.

“You guessed correctly,” I heard Russell shift around in his tub again, “It’s also the reason we have a test to begin with. Riley was adamant about making sure everyone deserved to be in the guild. We both tested each other when we founded the guild.”

“I can only imagine what that could have been like.”

“You don’t have to. He chose the largest monster he could find, for mine.”

“Well, shit.”

“Don’t worry, I found something larger for him.”

“I hope I’m not going to have that experience,” I laughed nervously.

“Of course not. We don’t expect you to fight something like that,” Russell chuckled, “And I should remember that next time I train with you. I am genuinely sorry for being a terrible teacher.”

“Well, I think for Riley, you’re a perfect teacher. But maybe not so much for me.”

“That just means I have to strive to be the perfect teacher for you.”

A long pause settled between us. I was beginning to wonder if I should ask Russell to go get my clothes once he was done. I had suffered the ultimate betrayal by Leona: abandoned, completely naked without a change of clothes. My only solace was a barrel full of warm water. What a cruel world this was.

“Robin…”

I perked back up, “Yea?”

“Is it true that you haven’t remembered anything?”

I paused, looking down into the water. I was never sure what to tell anyone who asked. There were several normal things to remember. The names of my friends. Some identifying information. But others, like seeing a cartoonish depiction of a man I had just met on a screen and knowing that the face I wore wasn’t my own? That was just plain weird.

I must have taken a beat too long, because Russell continued, “I’m sorry if it’s a touchy subject.”

“No, of course not…” I paused again; Russell had shared so much with me during this odd bath bonding we had going on…so maybe I should say something, “It’s just…none of it’s really coherent. And they’re all in my dreams, so it’s hard to know what’s real and…what’s just my brain being weird.”

“Do you think talking it out would help?”

“Maybe…”

“So what do you know for sure?”

“Well…” I thought of what I complied so far, “I had friends. Two friends in particular, though there could have been more. I know I lived in this place filled with trees, like no matter how far you travelled, trees would line practically every corner. And…I’m twenty-three?”

“Twenty-three? Seriously?”

“What? How old did you think I am?”

“I always figured you were Leona’s age. Or younger. Riley always swore you were underage.”

“Underage? Of course not! How old is Leona, anyway?”

“She turned nineteen a few months ago.”

“What? Really? I thought she was my age!”

“Nope. She’s our youngest member. Well, unless Niral turns out to be younger.”

“Turns out…?”

“Niral is…our biggest mystery,” Russell sighed, “Even a bigger mystery than you. But anyway, you’re twenty-three. That’s at least information. Is there anything else you remember…but not for sure?”

“Well…” I tried to skirt around the weird visions and think a little on the simpler side, “Not much, actually. I’ve seen a few people in town who seem familiar…but they don’t recognize me. So I’m not sure whether they actually know me or not.”

“Like who?” Russell asked.

“Raven, actually,” I admitted, “And…just Raven, to be completely honest.”

“Raven, huh?” Russell paused for a while, “I don’t know much about him, outside of business with Altosk. He goes off by himself for weeks on end, though. Half the time I’m dealing with other Altosk members. It’s possible you may have seen him passing through.”

“That is possible…” I spoke, though I didn’t quite believe it. I knew in the back of my mind it was something different. It was related to the screen I saw in my memories, the cartoon depiction of him.

But what did that mean?

“Actually…that could be possible,” Russell continued, “You mentioned trees, right? That could have been Heliord. That place is surrounded with trees. Or even Hallure. Well, Hallure just has the one big tree…but it’s something. But Heliord, Raven must have went through there to…wherever he goes.”

“Riley mentioned Heliord when we met,” I recalled, “He said that it was the next town over.”

“Yea, the only other town aside from the port on this continent.”

“So maybe if I go there, I’ll find someone.”

Somehow, in the pit of my stomach, I knew that wasn’t possible.

“Well, you certainly won’t be going alone,” Russell added, “We actually received a request from Fortune’s Market. One of their usual caravans were attacked the other day, and they’re short-handed for a delivery in a couple of weeks. It’s to Heliord.”

“That would be perfect!” I exclaimed, raising my hands up to hold the edge of the barrel.

“You’ll have to be trained, though,” Russell warned, “And along the way…we can test you. But this’ll be two weeks of intense training. Do you think we’re up for it.”

“Yes,” I needed to be, if I was going to make any headway in this. If I couldn’t find out for myself, then I needed to leave this town and figure it out.

“Alright,” I heard Russell get up and out of his barrel, “I expect you to be ready in the morning. It’ll be another long day…but I won’t push you far, alright?”

“Alright,” I spoke, though I was still a little nervous about Russell’s training style, “Oh…Russell?”

“Yea?”

“Can you get me my clothes?” I called out sheepishly, “Leona never came back.”

It turned out that two weeks of training were to be the hardest of my life. I couldn’t even remember my entire life and I knew this was the hardest. After all, what could top Russell’s stern orders and quick corrections? What could top getting my ass handed to me whenever he sparred with me, going as easy as he could on me? What could top Riley and Leona occasionally sitting in, snickering in the corner at my attempts at fighting until Russell put them to work as well? And, of course, what could top getting kicked in the stomach by a metal leg when Riley decided to spar with me in the middle of it?

“Evelyn…” I whined, collapsing into one of the chairs at the tailor shop, “It hurts to breathe.”

“It just means you’re working hard, Robin,” Evelyn spoke, striding over with a tub of warm water to soak my feet, “Honestly, it’s hard to imagine you’re the same girl who walked in a little over a month ago.”

“Woman. I’m a woman,” I corrected. After Russell’s conclusions about my age, I had decided to make sure everyone knew I wasn’t seventeen.

“Right, right,” Evelyn laughed, sliding over a chair to sit across from me, “So you’re leaving for Heliord tomorrow?”

“Yea,” I nodded, giving her a quick ‘thank you’ before I set my feet to soak, a relaxed sigh escaping my throat as soon as I did.

“You’ll be back, right?” Evelyn asked, “You can’t expect to leave, find out where you’re from, and never see your favorite tailor again, do you?”

“Of course I wouldn’t!” I spoke immediately, “Where else am I going to find the most unique dresses on the continent?”

“That’s right! And don’t you forget it!” Evelyn laughed, leaning back casually in her chair, “So have you just been training with Russell lately?”

“Most of the day. I feel like that’s all I do nowadays,” I wiped some hair from my eyes.

“Well, it’s for good reason,” Evelyn smiled, “Man…I just knew you would join them officially sooner or later.”

“Was it your intuition?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Evelyn hummed happily, pulling out her notebook from her pocket, “So what do you want your official Snake Eyes outfit to be? I can do so much with that figure of yours!”

“What? Another design? But I like the one I have…” I sat up a little straighter, trying to get a look at what she was thinking about.

“But what’s the fun of staying in the same old design?” Evelyn poked at my forehead with the back of her pencil, pushing me back, “Look, this is a new start for you! Might as well show off that you’re a new woman! A new, guild woman!”

“Seriously, I like the one I have,” I repeated.

Evelyn huffed, “Well you’re just being stubborn. I swear, all these guilds around here just like the same old clothes. They find something they like, and they never want everything different! It’s like they never change out of them. Honestly!” She crossed her arms, tapping her pencil against her arm as she looked me up and down, impatient.

Honestly, I couldn’t help but agree with that observation. Snake Eyes always seemed to be in the same looking outfits. And Raven was always in that pink and purple outfit no matter what.

“I mean, I don’t even have any money,” I was being honest, Snake Eyes took care of everything, but I only got money if it was to pick up something at the market.

“Ah, that’s where you’re wrong,” Evelyn grinned, “You see, Snake Eyes members get completely free clothes here. No matter what.”

“I remember you saying something like that before. I thought you were just being nice,” I spoke.

“Nope! It’s absolutely free. And since you’re a new member, you wouldn’t possibly deny my generous offer, would you?” Evelyn was smirking now, looking down at her sketch with certainty now.

“But…I like the ones I have…” I sighed, “How about different ones? Not travelling clothes?”

“What? Like lounging clothes? An outfit for a night on the town? Oh, is little Robin going to go barhopping later?” Evelyn teased.

“Of course not! But – ”

“So we’ll have to have the collar go down a little low. Might as well entice the nice men and women there…”

“Evelyn!”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” she laughed, resting an arm on the armrest of the chair, holding her head in her hand, “But who knows? A cute little outfit to just enjoy yourself? Might be a good idea.”

“I thought you were kidding.”

“Not this time,” Evelyn hummed, looking back down at her sketch, “But think of it this way. You’ll be travelling a ton, seeing all these new places. You could always have something to change into after a long, smelly night on the road. And if you find your home…then might as well have a good impression.”

“Well, I could always wear my loungewear, right?” I spoke, referencing the clothes I had woken up in. They were comfortable when I wasn’t running around Dahngrest.

“No! I’m talking a good set of clothes to save for something great!”

“So…are you talking a dress?”

“I might be.”

“Evelyn…where the hell would I need to wear a dress?”

“I don’t know. I just love designing dresses.”

“I don’t plan on going to some royal ball anytime soon.”

“Good. They’re all assholes.”

“Then where else would I wear a dress?”

Evelyn shrugged, lowering her hand to sketch something out. I looked over to see her sketching the outline of a large ballgown over my frame.

“Evelyn…that’s not happening.”

“A girl can dream, alright!” Evelyn exclaimed, continuing to sketch, “Look, you never get opportunities to make cute dresses in this town!”

“You’re in the wrong town for cute dresses, don’t you think?”

“I know…but I’m not leaving. So that gives me the right to complain every now and then, right?” she continued sketching furiously. When started seeing her make the bottom of the dress be practically covered in feathers, I looked away, not wanting to see her grand vision for this dream of hers. Instead, I took a good look at her. At her skinny arms, pristine skin like she had never worked a day in her life. And a strand of pink hair sliding down her arm.

Come to think of it…I hadn’t seen anyone else in this town with that hair color. I had seen others that made me raise an eyebrow, but they were all muted colors. This color was vibrant, but from what I could tell, it was natural.

But something in my head told me it couldn’t be natural. That the color didn’t exist naturally, but her roots never showed. Her eyebrow were simply a darker shade of pink. It was strange. 

She suddenly looked up, a little confused, “Yea?”

“O-Oh, I was just admiring your hair. It’s pretty,” I looked away, a little embarrassed to be caught, “And I haven’t seen that color before.”

“Oh?” Evelyn paused for a second, looking like a deer in headlights for a small moment, “Well, of course. It’s dyed.”

“Really? How often do you dye it?” I rose an eyebrow. I had seen her frequently enough to know that probably wasn’t the case. Unless she was dying her hair every day, which I doubted.

“Often enough,” she grinned, “Why? Do you want to try some? Let’s give Russell a scare when I drop you off.”

“No thanks! I’m good!” I rose my hands and shook them in an urgent refusal. Hey, just because I knew she was lying didn’t mean I wasn’t afraid of her actually having pink hair dye somewhere upstairs. And I wouldn’t put it passed Evelyn to try to use it on me to match some sort of weird outfit.

She grinned and returned to her sketching, “So are you nervous to go out there? It’ll be the first time leaving Dahngrest in a while, hasn’t it?”

“First time leaving since I got here,” I leaned back, relaxing, “I can’t say I’m not nervous. I’ve been doing well with my training…but with monsters? And the test? It’ll be different.”

“Yea, monsters are nothing to mess with,” she nodded, continuing on with her dress sketch, “But it’s a new step, right? Can’t improve until you go out there and show them what you got!”

“Ah…I keep on wondering whether I’m going to fail or not,” I sighed, “Like…what if I just completely fail the mission.”

“Then you try again,” Evelyn spoke, “You really think Russell’s going to kick you to the curb if you fail one test? It’ll be fine, Robin.”

“I know…but I can’t help but feel nervous. Like everything’s going to change.”

“That’s because everything does change. That’s life for you,” Evelyn finished up her scribble, “Like as soon as you return from Heliord, you’re going to try this dress on for me.”

I looked over at her sketch. It looked like it was a dress entirely made of feathers, in the worst way I could ever describe. I couldn’t help but snort, leaning back.

“Ugh, you’re just like Riley,” Evelyn huffed, flipping the page, “You guys lack vision.”

“No, I love it…just less feathers?” 

“But that ruins it.”

“Then how about this?” I looked down at the sketch and hummed, trying to think of what I would wear, “How about…a dress with lace?”

“That’s vague. Even I have to say that.”

“Well, I don’t know how to describe it,” I crossed my arms, thinking again, “Well…how would I dress if I found my home? I don’t think I’m a fighter, where I’m from.”

“Oh, definitely not.”

I gave Evelyn a look before continuing, “Who do you think I am…well…was? Am?”

She hummed, “Probably a noble.”

I gave her another, deadpan look.

“What?” Evelyn asked, “You don’t know how to fight, you don’t know anything, and – ”

I gave her a light smack on her forehead.

“Hey! Was I lying?”

“No, actually,” I cracked a smile, laughing, “Oh jeez…I have no idea what I’m getting myself into.”

“Who ever does?” Evelyn smiled, shutting her notebook, “Well, how about I surprise you when you get back? New clothes for a nice time, wherever or whoever you are?”

I couldn’t help but smile genuinely, “That sounds perfect. Thank you.”

The next day, the four Snake Eyes members and I stood on the bridge of Dahngrest, checking our supplies one last time before we headed out.

“You sure you’re ready?” Leona spoke up as she adjusted the daggers on her belt.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I adjusted my own short sword, internally groaning every time my muscles twinged, “Even with my sore muscles.”

“You won’t have to fight today,” Russell reminded me as he checked his bag, his large sword strapped to his back, “Niral, I’ll have you stick by Robin today. Leona, I trust you have Robin’s bodhi blastia?”

“Yep!” Leona confirmed, showcasing off what she had managed to find at the market: a short silver necklace with the blastia imbedded into the metal. Niral simply let out a small confirmation, stepping closer to me as if to get a head start on his duties.

“Riley, you’ll be in front with me,” Russell spoke, looking over to a tired-looking Riley.

“Yea, yea,” Riley answered, putting on his brass knuckles.

“Someone didn’t get their beauty sleep last night,” Leona quipped.

“More like someone was out all night,” I chimed in.

“Excuse me fer havin’ drinks before leavin’ town!” Riley exclaimed, storming off towards the fields that laid beyond the borders of Dahngrest. Leona followed suit, leaving only me, Niral, and Russell inside the blastia barrier.

“Robin,” Russell looked at me, “I want you to observe our battles today. Take it all in. When we arrive in Heliord tomorrow…we’ll start preparing for your test.”

“Alright,” I nodded determined to see whatever lie ahead through. I took one look back at the buildings and twilight of Dahngrest before turning to follow Russell out of the barrier.


	4. Heliord

The day was relatively easy, with the occasional battle interweaving between long walks through the plains. Each battle was like nothing I had ever seen before. Riley with his hand-to-hand combat, Russell with his giant sword, Leona with her dual blades and artful maneuvering, and Niral with their occasional magical support from where I stood on the sidelines. It was just mind-blowing how they could move like that, destroy these creatures like that. Sometimes I would just gawk at them, barely taking in any of the techniques to just admire the entire spectacle as a whole. Other times, when a larger monster appeared, I would crouch down somewhere in fear, with Niral standing closely by, keeping the monsters far from our position. 

And on occasion, they would use these special techniques. They would just go through the motions, energy practically soaring from within. I recognized these attacks from Russell’s training. Artes. Apparently, they were channeled out from the blastia, like a burst of energy that coursed right through the body. Since I had yet to equip my blastia, I didn’t get the opportunity to try them out yet. Russell was trying to stress that I needed to have my own strength before I relied on a blastia. And honestly, I could tell that I was getting stronger from all that hell he put me through.

I wish I knew how to look as cool as that while I was fighting, though. 

At the end of the day, we settled on the outskirts of a forested path, apparently just over halfway to Heliord. 

“Alright, that outta keep us safe fer the night,” Riley spoke, finishing up the temporary barrier for our campground.

“Ah…I miss my bed already…” I muttered, attempting to settle into my sleeping bag.

“Better get used to the sleepin’ bag, Rob, ‘specially if ya wanna actually travel with us,” Riley spoke, sitting beside his spot for the evening by a fire Niral had thrown together. He unzipped the bottom half of his left leg, revealing his prosthetic. He began tinkering with it, and soon after, he slid it off of his leg, setting it next to the fire.

“Do we have some wood fer a mornin’ fire, Niral?” Riley asked, looking over to the white-haired member, who was sitting up on his sleeping bag, reading by the firelight. 

Niral merely looked up at Riley with a deadpan look, “You did not say you needed a fire tomorrow.”

“Ah, come on, Niral,” Riley huffed, crossing his legs, “Ya know I hate puttin’ on a cold leg in the mornin’.”

“Perhaps you should have told me,” Niral flipped a page.

Leona strode over and grinned, “Maybe if you ask me nicely, I can go get firewood.”

“That just sounds like ya want something,” Riley looked at her skeptically.

“Why would you ever think that, Riley?” Leona tried to act innocent, “Why would I ever want something from you?”

“What is it?” Riley sighed.

“Nothing…”

“Ya know what? I can deal with a cold leg.”

Russell walked over, “I’ll just get the firewood. Robin, do you want to come with me?”

I shook my head, “No, I’m comfortable here. I want to conserve my energy for tomorrow.”

He chuckled, “Alright, that’s very true. I’ll be back.”

Russell walked off and I shut my eyes, drowning out the sounds of Riley and Leona’s banter, occasionally interrupted by the turning of Niral’s page. And for the first time in a couple weeks, I fell into a dark sleep and opened my eyes to pure white.

_The man was there again, this time staring at me with his grey eyes the second I could process them. I gasped, surprised to even be in this place again. But still, this was an opportunity to ask. An opportunity to find out what I needed to know. Before I could even open my mouth to speak, he strode over, grabbing me by the shoulders tightly, never even blinking once._

_“Again and again, you come back,” he spoke, a frown deeply etched into his lips, “Why do you want this? Are you not happy with the way things are?”_

_I opened my mouth to speak, but my voice was missing. Even my breaths were unheard in this white space. Though the man looked even more angry as if he had heard my intended words all the same._

_I wanted to know. I wanted to understand. I wanted my name._

_A sarcastic chuckle left him, “You don’t need to understand. Why can’t you see that? Why do you keep on trying to remember? After all I’ve done.”_

_What had he done? All he had done was remove my memories and take away my name. I wasn’t Robin. I was someone else. I looked like someone else. I had a name with syllables that always fled my lips, fleeing to the deepest recess of my mind._

_“Of course you don’t understand,” he seemed to be talking to himself now, his hands slowly withdrawing back to himself, “You don’t know.” Then, his expression began to harden, eyes growing distant. I could feel the vibe of the white room change, growing into a place that screamed danger. Immediately, I wanted to get out. To leave. But I couldn’t escape. I was stuck standing perfectly still, a doll that awaited command from its owner._

_He reached a hand forward, stroking my cheek before his grip tightened, fingernails digging into my cheek, pricks of pain coursing into my nerves._

_“Here’s your first warning.”_

_I closed my eyes and opened them to a dim road. A crosswalk in front of me, the walk signal flashing on. I took steps forward and checked the time on my phone. Six in the evening, wintertime. I shivered and noticed the lights in the corner of my eye._

_Bright white lights._

_Impact on my side. I flew, tearing into the concrete below. The pain blinded me, I couldn’t breathe. Everything burned. Every breath was like a stab in my lung._

_I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t breathe. I was dying. Oh my god I was dying. I didn’t want to die. Not like this. I want to see my mom. My dad. Where are they? I’m so afraid. Oh my god I’m so afraid._

“Robin!”

_I couldn’t think I couldn’t breathe oh my god I didn’t want to die I can’t breathe it hurts to breathe I was burning I couldn’t move._

“Robin! Wake up!”

My eyes snapped open, my skin drenched in a cold sweat. Russell held my shoulders firmly, looking down on me with a look that screamed of genuine concern. It took me a few moments to realize I was shaking. My heart was beating so quickly in my chest I swore it would bruise. Immediately, a hand went up to the cheek that the man had touched, only to feel smooth skin. It hadn’t been real. It was just one of those dreams. One of those dreams and nothing more, right?

“Hey, hey…you’re alright…” Russell spoke calmly, not really sure what to do with his hands as he pulled them away from my shoulders, “Robin, I want you to breathe with me, alright? Just watch me breathe and do the same.”

He began breathing slowly in and out. I slowly tried to follow him along, breaking into fast breaths on occasion before I got back on track. Slowly, I could feel my heart begin to slow, the panic slowly beginning to subside. I looked at him with confusion as I looked around. I was still in the campsite. Riley, Leona, and Niral were still sleeping, and I could see the quiet fire of a sunrise on the horizon. I sat up, taking a few more breaths. Russell took in a breath of relief, looking at me with concern. 

“Are you alright, Robin?” Russell asked quietly as to not wake up the other members of Snake Eyes. 

I only shrugged. How was I supposed to be okay after that? I was…dying in that dream. It was so real. That…couldn’t have been real. I was sitting right there.

“Was it a nightmare?”

I nodded.

He sighed in relief, “Well, I’m glad I waked you. You were just stiff as a board. Hyperventilating in your sleep. Couldn’t just leave you like that.”

“Why were you awake?” I asked, my voice quiet and nervous, a little shaken at the edges.

“I’m usually awake this early. You just aren’t awake to see it,” he chuckled breathlessly, scratching the back of his head.

I paused, looking down at my lap, where I had bunched some of the fabric of the sleeping bag up in my hands, “Sorry for worrying you.”

“Don’t be,” Russell pressed a hand on my shoulder, giving me a reassuring squeeze, “I’m used to this. Riley and Leona used to have nightmares all the time. I’m just glad to help you out.”

I smiled shyly, looking up at him, “Thank you, then. When are we leaving?”

“Not for a few hours,” Russell nodded towards Riley, “That one likes sleeping late.”

“Alright…” I looked back down to the sleeping bag, “I’m just…going to try and get some more sleep. If that’s fine.”

“Of course, of course,” Russell stood up, giving me a pat on the head, “Get some rest. I’ll be practicing right over there if you need me.” He pointed towards a spot right outside the temporary barrier, his sword embedded into the earth. I nodded sleepily, giving him a small wave as he walked back to training. 

And I laid back into my sleeping bag, trying to ignore the fact that every time I closed my eyes, I could see that disturbing vision. I could still feel the pain, even when the memory was gone. I felt a shiver course through my body, the vision repeating over and over again. I started shivering again, curling into my sleeping bag tighter and tighter, trying to breathe slowly so I wouldn’t start panicking again. I could feel the tears well up in my eyes from a fear I didn’t know the face of. Whatever that vision was, that lie, that memory (?), I was terrified of it. Terrified of feeling that death crawl up my skin again, to feel the lights flicker all around me. And the scariest part was that I couldn’t tell for certain if it was a vision the man used to keep me away…or part of a fragmented truth I didn’t want.

I didn’t know when I finally fell back asleep, but I was woken up in after sunrise by Niral, who had prepared breakfast for the Snake Eyes crew. Nobody seemed amiss about anything, and I couldn’t have felt more grateful for that. Even Russell mentioned nothing about my nightmares from the night before. Instead, everything felt deceptively normal. And soon after we finished packing up, we deactivated the barrier and headed towards Heliord.

The walk to Heliord was shorter than the travel from the previous day. We had made it more than halfway there, so naturally, we stepped into the city in the evening, only an hour or so before sundown. Before we stepped into the barrier of the city, Riley slipped out of his usual jacket, pulling out a black pull-over with a green hood stitched onto it. It didn’t seem to be Evelyn’s work. This looked more amateur, crudely sewn on with the stiches exposed and loose. 

I had given Riley a curious look, wondering exactly what this was for. None of the others even reacted as he stuffed his tan jacket into his bag, pulling up the hood to conceal his face. He didn’t explain it, only wordlessly following the group into town.

“First thing ya gotta know about Heliord,” Riley spoke up as we passed the barrier, “It’s not our land. It’s imperial land.” He spoke it with a bitterness in his voice. I merely nodded, taking a good look at the town. Knowing what I knew from Russell’s story, there must have been a reason for the hood. And I didn’t want to find out just why it was necessary.

It was definitely smaller than Dahngrest, that was for sure. It was more like a long path above a sandy ground, held tall over everything else. There was plenty of life up on the main walkway of Heliord. Shops, some elegant looking homes, and a large building on the other end crawling with men in armor and brilliant colors. Blues, reds, oranges, pinks, the works. And I couldn’t help but notice the same trend all around me. Men in the same armor but with different colors, keeping a close watch on whoever stepped foot into the town. I could feel the eyes on me as I passed the barrier. Eyes on the entirety of Snake Eyes, to be frank. Guards sizing us all up, regarding Russell was some challenge as soon as they saw the giant blade strapped to his back. 

Immediately, we headed straight for Fortune’s Market to deliver the items, which Niral had been carrying the entire journey. I took the opportunity to gawk at the town while the professional transactions were made – even as a letter runner, I didn’t get involved in that aspect of guild life. When everything wrapped up, Riley clapped a hand on my shoulder, grinning wide beneath the shadow of his hood.

“Now that our job’s taken care of…” Riley slipped his bandana off from around his neck, “Let’s see about ya fightin’ some monsters.”

“One monster,” Russell corrected, “And I’m afraid that will have to wait until tomorrow. I would rather wait until the sun’s not setting.”

“Aw, what a bummer,” Leona hummed, not as broken up about it as Riley seemed to be about that news, “So are we staying here tonight? I can grab a room for us.”

“That would be perfect,” Russell smiled at Leona, “Oh, do you have Robin’s blastia?”

“Yea, of course!” Leona reached into her bag and pulled out the bracelet again. I couldn’t help but admire it as she handed it over to Russell, who inspected it before smiling at me.  
“I know that you are a little tired…but maybe you should learn artes before tomorrow,” Russell handed me the bracelet, and I easily slipped it onto my left hand. Immediately, I could feel something change in my body. Like a connection. A power that sprouted from the contact point, spreading throughout my body like a curse. It was honestly both awesome and terrifying at the same time.

I must have been making a face, because Leona laughed out loud, “Ah, I remember my first blastia…” She walked away, muttering something else beneath her breath along the way. I looked with confusion between the remaining three members present.

“It’ll be strange at first, but you’ll get used to it,” Russell continued, motioning for me to follow, “Are either of you going to join us?” He paused, looking between Niral and Riley with a grin on his face. Niral’s response was simply to walk towards the inn, obviously not interested in watching a rookie fool around with learning how to use a blastia. Riley, on the other hand, beamed.

“Of course! Couldn’t miss this fer the world!” Riley stepped up right behind Russell and set a hand on his back, pushing Russell forward, “Let’s get a move on. Can’t stand bein’ near all these soldiers.” I smiled nervously, wondering why exactly Riley was so excited to watch me fail. A lot. As he would know, from the few times he stopped by my training in Dahngrest. I walked through the town with the two men, looking curiously at the people who walked through.

Unlike Dahngrest, this place seemed to be full of ordinary people. There were no giant swords and weapons here, just people in ordinary clothes with probably ordinary lives that would never have anything to do with the guilds. It was strange, but somehow comforting. Wherever I came from, I imagined it was nothing like Dahngrest. It was something ordinary. Somewhere where I would come back with the newfound muscles on my arms and odd clothes on my backs and everyone would stop and stare like I was a new person.  
Somewhere where I wouldn’t try fighting monsters with a bodhi blastia with a collection of four guild members staring at me from afar.

We passed through the barrier blastia of Heliord and plunged back into the forest, walking a distance before Russell stopped in the middle of a clearing, giving everything a quick survey before looking back at Riley and me.

“Riley, can you keep a watch out for monsters?” Russell asked before looking over at me, “There isn’t a proper place we can train in the middle of Heliord, so this will have to do.”

“What? Did ya seriously bring me out here to play patrol? Yer killin’ me, Russell,” Riley groaned, pulling his hood off his head, revealing an exasperated look on his face.

“You can watch as you scout,” Russell offered, unsheathing his sword and embedding it into the ground beside him.

“Yea, but not as well…” Riley grumbled as he walked off, adjusting his brass knuckles as he disappeared into the shadows of the trees and foliage around us. 

Once he was gone, Russell walked over to me, grabbing my blastia and turning it a little in his hands, “Just need to make sure it’s on right.” He looked over it a few times before he smiled, satisfied with how it looked. Russell walked back and grabbed his sword’s hilt. As soon as he did, I reached instinctively for my own sword, quickly unsheathing it and holding it in my hands. And I had to keep a firm grip so that it wouldn’t just fly out of them.

While we had been training, I had gotten used to a heavier blade that I wielding with two hands. Now…it was as if it weighted nothing at all. I stared down at the blade in my hands, hesitantly removing one hand from the hilt. And I could carry it with one hand with no issue. There was still weight to it…but before, I could barely even keep myself straight with it in one hand! I looked from my sword to Russell, a smile on my face.

“Why did you keep me from this for so long?” I asked, my grin not once fading, “This is so much better!” I gave my sword a few test swings, feeling how light it felt. It cut through the air with no problem.

“Well, like I said, you wouldn’t be improving if I had given it to you immediately,” Russell pulled out the blade from the earth, “You’ll improve with a blastia over time, of course, but you needed that initial training. You probably wouldn’t be able to hold it with one hand so easily if not for that.

“Well, I can at least still complain, right?” I teased, getting into the proper position.

“Of course,” Russell got into his fighting stance, looking at me with a challenge in his eyes, “Let’s start with a few warm-ups. You’ve had quite a break.”

We spent the next hour or so going through the basics, me excelling thanks to my new blastia. Sometimes Riley would chime in from the perimeter, mainly teasing me if I did something wrong or if Russell knocked me on my ass. I tried not to let it bother me. Much. I might have thrown a rock in his direction once. It’s hard to remember, really.

However, as the sky began to darken, Russell changed the topic of the fight to artes. He showed me a few artes before, even used them on me in training sometimes, but this was completely new to me. 

And no matter how I tried, I couldn’t seem to get it done.

“You need to feel it,” Riley spoke encouragingly from a tree, “Just feel that power inside of ya! It’ll be cool!”

“That doesn’t help me at all, Riley,” I panted, more than tired from trying over and over to trigger an arte.

“Ah…well it’s hard to describe, honestly,” Russell was in the defensive position in front of me, “It’s something you feel. Some motions can help move it along…but…”

“I know, I know,” I was getting irritated, taking a few more swings at Russell. But there was nothing. No spark of energy flowing through me. No grand attack that would knock him off his feet. Absolutely nothing. And after that last swing, I grunted in anger, dropping my blade on the ground.

“Fuck! I’m never going to get that right!” I cursed, crossing my arms and huffing in anger.

“It’s fine, Robin. It’s not something you can force along…” Russell sighed, standing back up straight and sheathing his sword.

“Holy shit…” Riley whispered from the trees, “Did Rob just say fuck?”

“I’m an adult, Riley!” I snapped back, “I can say whatever I fucking want!”

“She said fuck twice…” Riley whispered again.

Russell sighed, looking up to the darkening sky, “Perhaps we should call it a day. You won’t need artes to pass the test tomorrow, so pushing it will only make it worse.”

“Yea! You can figure it all out later!” Riley called out, “Wait! Guys! Stay quiet.”

Russell and I perked up, falling quiet as we both looked over towards Riley’s hiding spot in the trees. With the newfound silence, we could hear rustling in the trees. Voices from a distance away. Too many voices to pick out just one, honestly. I looked at Russell with concern, but he kept his eyes fixated on the trees. Soon, Riley emerged from his hiding place, his hood back up, hurrying over to us with a serious look in his eyes.

“Imperial soldiers,” Riley spoke in a hushed tone, barely loud enough to hear, “And it’s a lot of them.”

“Right. Wouldn’t be good to run into any out here…” Russell replied back, eyes narrowing.

“But we aren’t doing anything wrong, right?” I asked, looking between them in concern.

Riley chuckled sarcastically, “You would think, right?”

Russell sighed, looking down at me, “Normally, you would assume that. However…several commanders do not have the best reputation, even among guilds.”

I froze, remembering the story that Russell had told me, about the time he met Riley. The cries for help, gone unheard by the soldiers within the town. 

“If they really wanna start an incident here with some guild members, be my guest,” Riley spoke up, fists clenching.

“Riley, you know we can’t let that happen,” Russell spoke, “Let’s just wait it out. There’s no need to draw attention towards ourselves.”

Wordlessly, Riley turned and began walking back towards the brush.

“Riley!” Russell hissed under his breath, looking between me and the retreating member of Snake Eyes. Then, he huffed, following after Riley, keeping his moves careful and precise. I stared after them, nervous for what they were thinking of doing. What the hell were they doing? I stared after them for a while before Russell turned to look at me, gesturing for me to follow. And so I did.

The air was tense as we walked through the brush, following the sounds of soldiers talking amongst themselves. I couldn’t make out much of their conversations aside from the talk of prisoners. About a captured group of wanted criminals. And…a kidnapped princess? It didn’t make much sense to me, honestly. As we walked through the brush, I could see Riley tense up in front of me, bothered by this entire situation. While I never got to hear whether it was a soldier’s fault that his family ended up dead…I could just see the answer in his stiff shoulders, his careful steps the entire way. 

And as we neared the entrance to Heliord, I stepped on a branch, a loud crack echoing through the trees like a death toll.

“Hm? Who goes there?” a soldier called out. Immediately, Russell and Riley bolted through the trees, soon out of sight. I jumped as soon as I saw them move, trying to run and keep close to them. But my foot got caught under a root that jutted out from the ground, sending me tumbling down to the ground.

“Ow…” I muttered, slowly getting myself off the ground, nursing a scratch on my arm.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing, sneaking around imperial soldiers?”

I froze in place, slowly turning my head to see a soldier peering down at me, weapon drawn. He was dressed in oranges and reds, a serious look on his face as he sized me up. I took in a shaky breath, not sure what to say. Wait…we weren’t doing anything illegal! We were just practicing on the outskirts of town! There wasn’t anything suspicious about that!

But then, why did they run? Was it illegal? Were they criminals to the empire? Did this have to do with Riley’s secrecy around town? I began shaking, just staring at the soldier with wide eyes.

“I-I…um…” I stuttered out, shaking under the soldier’s eyes.

“Well? Explain yourself!” 

The soldier reached down to me and pulled me up to my feet by the collar of my shirt. My knees shook so much I felt like I wouldn’t even be able to stand. Where did Russell and Riley go? Why weren’t they coming back? I stared, trying to breathe out a few more syllables. But every breath failed into meaningless stutters as I tried to come up with some explanation. 

“What’s going on?”

Another voice called out from the main path of soldiers, flat and monotone. I could hear the general line of soldiers come to a halt. I felt my heart beat loudly in my chest, staring wide eyed as another soldier walked through the brush to where we stood. He was dressed differently than the one holding me by the collar. He looked more official. More in charge, honestly. Long dark hair reaching his shoulders, partially concealing his face. Darker skin, a predominantly orange uniform with armor lining his arms and legs. His right arm rested on the hilt of an intricately designed red blade. I kept my eyes lowered, really not wanting to meet his eyes and face whatever came next. 

“Captain Schwann, I found this girl sneaking around,” the soldier reported, letting go of my shirt and leaving me to wobbly stand up for myself. One instinct was to run. To get away. But my muscles wouldn’t move at all. Soldiers left Riley’s family to die. What would they do to a suspicious young woman sneaking around? And where would I run if I did? I couldn’t exactly run to Heliord, where tons of soldiers were waiting. And where exactly lied in the other direction? Monsters?

There was a long, agonizing pause. I could feel the man, the captain, look me up and down carefully. I could hear voices mutter off in the line of soldiers, all steady and serious.

“What were you doing?” the captain asked flatly.

I swallowed, trying my best to not just fall over from nerves alone, “T…Training! That’s all!” It wasn’t a lie. 

The soldier who caught me let out a harsh breath of air, irritated, “Training to be a pickpocket? A spy?”

Oh shit. In retrospect, that was probably the worst thing to say when getting caught for sneaking around. 

The captain was silent, waiting for a few moments longer. It felt like hours to me, standing there with my legs like a newborn deer’s. Finally, he turned around, walking back to the line of soldiers.

“Take her to Heliord, with the others,” the captain ordered.

Others? Wait…what did that mean?

Before I could even think more, the soldier beside me took my arm and yanked me forward, almost making me trip again on another tree root. We weaved through the bushes, following the captain’s cape until we made it to the main road to Heliord, where dozens of soldiers donned in red and orange were neatly lined up. When all their eyes fell on me as I was revealed, I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. 

“Is there some sort of issue, Captain?”

A deeper voice spoke up. I looked to the front of the line of soldiers to see a man in even more extravagant armor, looking way more important than the captain. He had pale white hair like the moon and a serious face, tired lines under his red eyes, indicating years of experience on the field. Beside the man, I could see a beautiful young woman with short, pink hair looking at me with a concerned look on her face. 

And as I looked over her white, pink, and gold outfit, I couldn’t help but think of her as someone I’ve seen before. Not her. The outfit. The color scheme. 

I could feel some static ooze into my brain as I thought about it, so I stopped, if only so I could avoid another incident. I didn’t want that there. Not with all of these soldiers.  
Captain Schwann shook his head wordlessly, falling in line with the soldiers. The soldier with a hold on me pulled me into line, shoving me back with a small group of people, all surrounded by soldiers of their own. I could barely get a good look at them before we were forced to march along towards Heliord. I only got short glimpses as I turned. 

A child wearing an impossibly large bag. 

A teenager with short brown hair. 

A young man with long, dark hair.

And then, I was pushed along by some soldiers who had formed around me, probably to keep me from making a grand escape. Not like I could escape at all. I felt so nervous that I could barely even walk along with the soldiers, let alone craft a grand plan of escape. 

I trembled all the way down the road, barely keeping up in line with the soldiers. Occasionally, I could hear the other non-soldiers arguing with the soldiers, the teenager in particular nastily complaining the entire way. It felt like forever until we finally reached Heliord, and when I passed through the barrier, I desperately searched for any sign of Riley, Leona, Russell, or Niral. All of the soldiers were so tall and bulky that it was hard to see much of anything aside from a symphony of metal and orange. What if they didn’t even see me between all of this? Would they even know I had been captured? They wouldn’t just leave without me, right?

Who else would deliver their letters?

The line of soldiers mostly dispersed when we entered the city, the soldiers escorting me and the other three individuals guiding us towards one of the largest buildings in town: the headquarters for the imperial soldiers. And soon after we entered the building, we were lead down a long hallway, eventually leading into what was essentially a dungeon. We were all shoved in, the cell door locking behind us as soon as the last of us – the kid with the bag – were safely inside. I couldn’t help but fall to my knees as soon as I was inside, still trembling from the entire experience.

Wait…was I arrested?

Was I in a jail cell with criminals?

Wait…why was a kid in a jail cell with us? Was he a criminal?

“Hey! What the hell is this all for?” the teenage brunette pipped up, storming over towards the door of the cell and giving it a firm shake.

“You’ll be interrogated when we’re ready for you,” the soldier on the other side spoke bluntly, “Think of your stories until then. Though I highly doubt they’ll help you.”

“What the hell do you mean? This is bullshit! Where’s Estellise?” the girl yelled. The soldier’s only response was to leave the room, not bothering to give her an answer. She groaned, storming towards one of two beds that we had in the jail cell and sitting down, crossing her arms as she mumbled under her breath angrily, words I was unable to pick up. I kept my eyes on the floor, trying not to completely panic. Russell would come get me, right? He would come up with a story, right?

Wait…but if they interrogated us, what if I said the wrong thing? This was way too stressful!

“Hey.”

Footsteps approached me. I felt the presence of someone kneeling down beside me, giving me a soft pat on the back.

“You alright?”

I looked up in surprise, seeing the young man looking at me with a serious look on his face. I stared for a little bit in disbelief, but nodded slowly.

“I just…didn’t expect this…” I spoke quietly, looking the man up and down. He wore intricate dark clothes, his shirt revealing a good bit of his chest and some muscular cleavage. His hair was impossibly neat and pin straight, looking a thousand times better than my own hair. Again, I could feel that familiarity, but I tried not to dwell on it. But that outfit…I had seen it before on the screen in my dreams.

He chuckled, “Well what can you expect, sneaking around soldiers like that?”

“I wasn’t trying to do anything bad,” I explained, “I was just with my friends…and they just ran off.”

“Huh. Really,” his voice sounded like he didn’t believe me.

“Yea. Really,” I shot back, finally recovering my voice now that the soldiers were gone.

“Well, you definitely don’t have the resolve of a spy, I’ll give you that,” he spoke calmly.

“I-I’m not!” I asserted.

“U-Um…guys?” the kid piped up from his corner of the jail cell, “W-What’s gonna happen to us?”

The man shrugged, not looking like he was worried at all, “I don’t know.”

“Well that’s some big help, there,” the teenager huffed, still irritated. 

However, it wasn’t long until the door to the room opened again. All of us perked up, looking as a soldier walked in. And soon after, Russell also walked in, wearing a serious face that lacked all kindness in it. I felt myself swallow a little in nervousness, not at all liking the vibe that was coming out of him. Sure, I was beyond happy to see him, but that attitude put me on edge. Seriously on edge. 

“W-Wait…w-why is he here?” the kid stuttered out quietly, more to himself than to anyone else in the room. When Russell’s eyes fell on me, he stared at me long and hard.

“You. On your feet,” Russell spoke coldly.

What was up with him?

I hesitantly stood up, not sure what the angle was here. I could feel the others in my cell look at me curiously.

The soldier looked at Russell, “That’s the one?”

Russell nodded silently, motioning towards the door of the cell. The soldier quickly unlocked the cell, opening it so that Russell could walk in. At first, I opened my mouth to say something, but Russell roughly grabbed the arm with my blastia on it, holding it up to me.

“Remove it,” Russell ordered, voice harsh. Wordlessly, I reached up with my other hand and pulled off the blastia. As soon as it was removed, Russell tore it from my hand, pocketing it. I looked at him with wide eyes. I couldn’t tell whether he was putting on a show or if I had done something wrong. But I felt terrible at that moment, feeling like I would break down at that very moment.

“I’ll be taking her,” Russell turned around, still holding my arm tightly. I was jerked around with him, wincing at the force of his grip.

The soldier held the door open as he pulled me out, locking the door behind me, leaving the other three locked up, “Commandant Alexei will want to speak with you.”

“Very well,” Russell looked towards the soldier, “Bring him, then.”

“Yes, sir,” the soldier walked towards the door leading out, holding it open, “Right this way.”

Russell’s grip was tight as we weaved back through the imperial headquarters, retracing my steps away from that jail cell. I shivered the entire time, still uneasy. Russell’s expression didn’t change once the entire way, his grip unchanging on my arm. It felt like it was going to bruise. I stumbled along in disbelief, looking nervously around the entire compound. As we neared the front of the building, the white-haired man in important armor noticed us, approaching us before we made it to the front door.

“Ah, you’re the guild leader, I assume?” the man asked.

“Yes,” Russell spoke flatly, “Commandant Alexei, I presume?”

“Yes, that is correct,” the man, Alexei, answered, looking down at me with a suspicious look in his eye, “Your guild member was sneaking near our soldiers. I’m afraid we will have to question her before we can let you have her.”

“This member broke our guild laws by running out alone, stealing a bodhi blastia in the process,” Russell looked down at me with a dead look in his eyes, “She will be punished by our own guild rules.” I looked up at him with utter confusion in my eyes. Even though I knew what he said were lies, his tone still put a chill down my spine. Like I had done those things, even when I hadn’t.

“That is fine and well. However, we will still need to question her.”

Immediately, I felt my arm twist around so my back was to Russell. His free hand shoved me to my knees.

“What were you doing out there?” Russell’s voice was cold.

“W-What…?” I asked in surprise. I winced and let out a cry of pain when I felt my arm twist more, straining against his strength.

“Now now, we don’t have to do this out here,” Alexei spoke, though he made no move to stop Russell. His eyes showed no concern for me.

“I want to get this done so that our business isn’t further held up by this,” Russell replied, turning his attention back to me, “Answer the question.”

“T-Training…” I answered back, trying to be truthful.

“Really?” Russell asked, tightening his grip even more.

My arm was on fire, “Yes! Yes! Stop!”

“Then why were you spying on imperials?” Russell wasn’t letting up, keeping the pressure up.

“I wasn’t! I swear!”

I could see soldiers staring from across the room. I could see the captain from before starring from the shadows. None of them made a move to stop this.

“Then what were you doing?” Russell asked.

“I-I was scared! I-I didn’t want to walk on the same path as soldiers!” I called out the first thing that came to mind. Russell grunted, letting go of my arm and sighing. I immediately recoiled from him, breathing fast as I looked down at my arm, already bruising from where he grabbed me. I trembled, not even looking back up. 

“Is that satisfactory for you?” Russell spoke bluntly.

Alexei sighed, “I believe it will have to do. Take her and do what you must.”

Russell grabbed me by the back of my shirt and hoisted me up, practically shoving me towards the front door. I kept my eyes down as we walked out and away from the gazes of the soldiers. He grabbed my arm and dragged me along, not once flinching from his cold demeanor as we passed through town, soldiers clad in red and orange staring at the two of us. It wasn’t until we reached the inn and closed the doors behind us that his hand slipped away from my arm, a long sigh escaping his mouth.

“I truly apologize for what I did to you back there…” Russell spoke slowly, not looking down at me, “I’ll be taking another room for myself. Niral will heal your arm. Your room’s the second door on the right.” Wordlessly, he slipped a key into my hand and walked towards the front desk, talking quietly to the woman behind the counter. I stared at his back for a second, still shaking from everything. I finally took in a deep breath and walked towards the stairs. 

The second I unlocked the door, Leona practically ran up to me, eyes wide.

“Robin! You’re alright!” she exclaimed before looking down at my bruised-up arm, “Wait, what the fuck? Who did that to you?” She looked at me seriously, fingers lingering on the daggers strapped to her belt.

“I-I…um…” I nervously stuttered out.

“Russ did a number on ya, didn’t he?” Riley stepped towards the front door, his hooded pullover off and tossed aside on one of the two beds.

I slowly nodded.

“Seriously?” Leona groaned, “Jeez, he couldn’t have gone easy on you, could he? Niral! Get over here!” She gently led me to the room while Riley shut the door behind us. She sat me down on one of the beds. Niral was quick to walk over, healing my bruises with the same glow I had seen when we first met. 

“You know Russ has to do that, right?” Riley spoke up, leaning against a wall and giving Leona a knowing look.

“The poor girl’s trembling! He knows she’s never seen him like that, right?” Leona seethed.

“It’s all for the effect, Leo. What? You wanna risk the imperials thinkin’ he was a big pretender? He’s gotta be a hard-ass ta make sure she doesn’t end up on some chopping block.”

“And he couldn’t explain everything to her before dropping her off?”

“You know how guilty it makes him feel, Leo!”

“And whose feelings matter more? His, or her’s?”

Riley paused, huffing in anger, “Fuck, I’m findin’ Russ.” He stormed out of the room, opening the door and slamming it.

“Wow, forgot your fucking hood!” Leona yelled after him before she quietly sighed, looking over to Niral, “Give him his hood, please? He needs it.”

Niral finished healing my arm, making it feel like nothing happened in the first place, before wordlessly picking up Riley’s pullover and heading out the door, quietly closing the door behind them. Leona sighed, plopping down beside me on the side of the bed, brushing some shorter locks from her face.

“Fuck…this was not how I wanted to spend this trip,” Leona groaned beneath her breath.

“Sorry…” I spoke meekly, looking down to the ground.

“Robin, it’s not your fault at all,” Leona sighed, giving me a comforting squeeze on my shoulder, “Riley and Russell should have known full well to just wait everything out. They were just being too hasty and now look where we are. Fucking idiots…”

We sat in silence for a while. I kept my eyes to the floor, still blown away from what had happened. 

“So…Russell did all that to get me out of there…right?” I asked hesitantly, looking up at Leona.

She sighed, leaning back until her back rested on the bed, “Yea. I mean…Russell did what he had to do. I’m just pissed that even had to happen in the first place. What was he in such a hurry for that he had to abandon you to soldiers?”

“I don’t know…” I spoke, shrugging, “Riley just noticed the soldiers and began heading back.”

“That didn’t mean Russell had to follow and drag you in, too,” Leona groaned, “It doesn’t make any fucking sense.”

“Do you…think Russell would tell us if we asked?”

“Maybe. You can try,” Leona sighed, “It might be a little better to leave him alone. He might have done something stupid tonight…but he really didn’t mean to hurt you or anything. If he doesn’t exert some force when he needs to…well…you could have just spent a little longer with the imperials. But still…that must have been a shock, right?” She looked up at me with a concerned look on her face.

“Yea…” I spoke, nodding slightly, “It was like a completely different person.”

“Russell can be a scary guy when he needs to, that’s for sure,” Leona sighed, putting her hands behind her head, staring up at the ceiling, “I’ve only seen it a couple times before. First time was when I first joined up with Snake Eyes.”

“Really? What happened?”

Leona was silent for a time, closing her eyes to think before opening them again, “I was a pickpocket for a long time. In the capital at least.” She sighed, sitting up and slouching beside me.

After a pause, she continued, “I’m from the Zaphias lower quarter. Pretty sure you don’t know what that means…but it means you live in a shithole beneath the upper quarter. People are nice down there…but nice doesn’t pay for food. Or medicine.” The last part was said bitterly, like poison in her lungs. 

“I was stealing all I could there. Until I didn’t have a reason to steal for. So instead of sticking around, I left,” Leona chuckled, “It was so stupid, wandering outside the barrier like that. But I ended up surviving for a while. And eventually…Riley and Russell found me. They took me in for a little while, mainly because I was so hungry I could barely walk. First thing I did was try to swipe some food from the market, though.”

“Course, I wasn’t thinking straight. I got caught. Of course. And instead of getting thrown in jail…Russell knocked me around and said I was the responsibility of Snake Eyes. I barely knew the guy, then. So of course I fought back. And got beaten to a pulp,” she sighed, pulling her hairband from her dreadlocks and letting them fall freely down her back, “We didn’t have Niral back then. So imagine this twenty-something endlessly apologizing to a thirteen year old recovering in bed for a few days. With a sassy blond teenager occasionally heckling her.”

“Oh…” I spoke, “That bad?”

“Gotta be tough when you need to protect people sometimes,” Leona chuckled at a sudden thought, “Got to see Riley go through the same thing when he tried picking a fight with the Hunting Blades once.”

“Somehow, I’m not surprised at that,” I replied with a small chuckle.

“Oh really? I wonder why,” Leona replied sarcastically, her head turning to the door, “Speaking of which…where’d Niral go? They’re not the type to wander off. I’d figure they’d just throw the hoodie at Riley and head right back.”

“You’re right. It’s been a little long…” I spoke, my eyes wandering to the door as well.

“Fuck…I don’t feel like looking at this time of night,” Leona plopped back onto the bed, “You alright with sharing for the night?”

“Yea, that’s fine…” I replied quickly, standing up, “I’m just…going to go look for Niral.”

“Really? I mean, Niral’s a grown…person. They can fend for themselves if they get into trouble.”

“I know. It’s more of an excuse to walk.”

“Gotcha. Well, I’ll be here. Don’t forget your key, Robin. And be careful of soldiers.”

“Yea, yea. I don’t want another encounter…” I spoke, grabbing my key and walking out the door to the quiet hallways of the inn. I slowly walked out, wandering back towards the front. I looked over towards the front desk, seeing the same woman from before. I decided to approach, thinking this would be my first lead.

“Um…excuse me?” I asked, “Which room is my friend staying in? Russell?”

The woman looked over at me and looked me over, quick recognition pouring over her expression, “Oh? Him? He should be the first door on the right…but he left the inn not too long ago. He was with two others.”

Two others? So Riley and Niral. Well, that was easy. All I would have to listen for were any of them. Well…either Riley or Russell. Niral speaking was a rare treat, honestly.

I took in a deep breath, walking out the doors of the inn to see the night sky. It wasn’t quite as dark as I would imagine. Both the moon and the light of the barrier cast a faint white light onto the entire town, making it rather easy to navigate, albeit with some alleyways still shadowed by the surrounding buildings. There weren’t many soldiers out now, which was an intense relief for me, after what I had been through. I turned my head, looking around. Thankfully, since the inn was on one side of town…that just meant that there was only one way to go.

Hopefully they didn’t wander out of the barrier. No way was I going to risk that kind of danger. Especially when I just wanted to walk around with some sort of purpose in mind. 

Finding the boys and Niral while I was out? Great. Finding a monster along the way? Not great.

I wandered around, just taking in the rare silence of Heliord. Dahngrest was never a quiet city, people wandering in at any time of the day and night, always on some sort of grand mission to bring money and fame to their guild. Heliord was the exact opposite. Sure, there was activity during the day, but it all held a calculated purpose. A schedule of soldiers and shopkeepers, with a strict nightly rest for most of the residents, the night watch the only ones permitted to remain awake. I felt almost like a trespasser as I maneuvered my way through the roads and around the towers that held together the barrier blastia. Each footstep against the tightly packed stone broke the silence by a hair, shattering the peace that Heliord was gifted in the light of the moon.

However, soldiers seemed to pay me no mind. They seemed to be surveying everyone with an equal amount of scrutiny, so I was no more than another midnight passenger on the roads of Heliord. Thank God for that. I didn’t want to be watched by soldiers for the rest of my life for that.

Unfortunately, the more I looked…the more lost I got. The main road of Heliord was very straight forward, going straight from point A to point B. But heading further into the city, away from the main road and getting closer to the cliffside, everything was beginning to blur together. I tried to look up towards the cliffs to try and keep a visual cue on where I was…but it wasn’t any help.

“Shit...” I cursed under my breath, looking around to try and see where I was. I didn’t need Leona going out to search for me too. If she wasn’t already asleep, that is.

And at that moment, I heard a familiar voice whispered harshly.

“What the fuck were you thinking?”

It was Russell.

I froze, looking towards a shadowed alleyway where three figures stood huddled together. On instinct, I hurried behind an empty shop cart, breathing slowly.

“I didn’t want to wait there forever, Russ.”

Riley’s voice.

“And look where we ended up because of that. It wasn’t just that. You wouldn’t risk so much just to save some time.”

“It ended up fine.”

“You think collecting Robin from the soldiers was just _fine_?”

“She ain’t dead.”

It felt like a stab in the back. It sounded like Riley didn’t even care.

“Excuse me? She is going to be a member of our guild.”

“Look. Shit ended up fine, alright!”

Russell groaned, “Don’t think I haven’t been noticing you lately. All those times you leave without taking a mission. The times you abandon your post.”

“What? I haven’t noticed.”

“Who the fuck do you think you’re tricking here?”

“Listen. I’ve just been going fer drinks recently.”

“So you abandoned Robin all those weeks ago for a drink.”

“Well that time, it was a cute guy.”

“Riley. This isn’t like you at all.”

“People change, Russ.”

“Not like this.”

“I’m done talking.”

I could hear footsteps.

“Don’t walk away from me.”

Russell’s voice grew angrier. More footsteps. I curled even closer to the cart.

“I’ll see ya at the inn, Russ,” Riley called out, his footsteps – and another pair, presumably Niral’s – fading away from the area. I could hear Russell huff angrily. I heard a punch to a building. And then more footsteps in another direction.

Then, silence.

I hesitantly stood up from my hiding place, looking with concern towards their fleeing backs. What was that about?

What the hell was Riley doing?

I took in a few breaths of my own, trying to think over what I had overheard. But there were so many questions and not enough answers. I sighed, honestly getting a little irritated with myself. If I hadn’t stepped on that damn stick and gotten noticed…then things would have been different. 

Instead I got…whatever this was.

Riley was doing something, though I hardly knew what that could be. Did it relate to the way he stalked the soldiers earlier? Was he trying to spy on them about something? Just thinking about a bigger picture made my head hurt.

And I remembered with dread that my guild test was supposed to be the next day.

I groaned, not excited to see what exactly Russell would throw at me after a day like today. Suddenly, I felt more than tired at just the possibility of fighting monsters.

Too bad I didn’t even know where the inn was. Who was I supposed to follow?

Before I even think of my plan of attack, I felt a presence behind me. It came suddenly, like a blanket of danger that covered my entire skin, clouding all my senses. I jerked my head around, hand flying to the hilt of my sword.

And I saw the captain from before. Captain Schwann.

I froze in place, immediately lowering my eyes, “H…Hi.” What did he want? I was already let go by the big white-haired guy in charge. Wait…were they lying when they said they were done with me? Were they just waiting for the right time to drag me back to that jail cell?

The man in front of me was silent, regarding me with a passive look in his eye. At the very least, he wasn’t moving to knock me out or drag me away. Yet. I took a step back, not sure what I was supposed to say or do. 

“Follow me,” the man said in his usual monotone, passing me by. I stared at his retreating back for a moment, confused. He wasn’t going to lead me to a nasty death, was he? I wasn’t quite ready to put my faith in the knights after the evening I had.

He stopped, looking back at me. And he rose his hand, gesturing me to follow.

I took in a deep breath, following him. 

The walk was silent. Awkward, honestly. He took the lead, easily navigating through the streets of Heliord with ease. Well, that made a lot of sense. This was an imperial town. He had probably been to Heliord a lot. Or at the very least, had more memories than an amnesiac to work with. I kept silent, not sure what to say. He didn’t seem to be leading me to my death. Yet. Hopefully not. Honestly, I didn’t want to say anything, just in case.

He didn’t seem bothered by the silence at all. In fact, he looked like he was just doing a typical patrol with a guild member following behind. The only times he did acknowledge me were to make sure I was still following every few minutes. I kept my eyes level, scanning for anything suspicious. He had to have some sort of plan. If only I still had a blastia on.

To my surprise, we eventually turned a corner and ended up at the front doors of the inn. 

“Oh!” I looked around the main road of Heliord, not really believing that a soldier had led me back. The captain simply walked towards the doors, opening one and holding it open for me. 

That was…definitely not what I was expecting from all of this. 

“Thank you…” I bowed my head as a formality before walking inside. Part of me expected him to follow me or to see a legion of soldiers piled up in the lobby, waiting to pounce. But there was no such thing. Just the shop keeper behind the main desk and a few travelers who were discussing who would pay for their room. 

I heard the door shut behind me, and I turned my head to see nobody there. 

Wait, did a soldier just walk me back to the inn? After I had been taken in as a criminal earlier?

God, this was confusing.

“Rob?”

I flinched, hearing Riley’s voice from the stairway leading to our room. I looked up, seeing Riley without his hood on, staring at me with the most delighted look on his face.

“Hello…?” I asked, raising my eyebrow in suspicion.

“Did a fuckin’ captain just walk ya home?” Riley was grinning from ear to ear now, rushing down with the most shit-eating look on his face, “Holy shit!”

“I mean…I guess?” I shrugged, not liking where this was going.

“What kinda answer is that? I saw the colors!” Riley draped his arm over my shoulder, leading me back towards the stairs, “Leo was gettin’ all worried, but you were in some _capable_ hands.”

“Don’t you hate soldiers?” I seethed under my breath, feeling my cheeks begin to turn red just from his teasing.

“Yea, but that doesn’t mean ya can’t play ‘round with some. Can’t shame ya fer shitty taste,” Riley was laughing now, practically dragging me up the stairs. For some reason…I felt like he was being overtly peppy about this whole thing. Like he was hiding something behind that smile.

“It wasn’t like that! I got lost on my walk!” I piped up, glaring at him.

“Lost while lookin’ at some nice ass,” Riley quipped, fetching out his key and unlocking our room.

“No I wasn’t, Riley!” I stormed into the room as soon as it was open. Inside, Leona and Niral perked up, Leona on one bed with Niral on the other.

Leona sighed, setting down the book in her hands, “What is it?”

“Rob almost got some ass tonight!”

“Oh?” Leona immediately became intensely interested, looking up at me with a sly grin as I unlaced my boots, kicking them to the side.

“He’s lying. As always.”

“He can’t be lying with your face as red as that,” Leona leaned over to my side of the bed and winked, “Shame you couldn’t have had some fun before your test.”

“I’m not looking for that kind of fun! I’m not interested!” I hopped right into bed, not bothering to change into my comfort clothes, “I’m just tired.”

“So who was the lucky person, Riley?” Leona continued as if I had said nothing.

“An important lookin’ soldier?”

“What?” Leona scoffed, looking down at me, “Shit taste there.”

“No taste,” I answered.

“Think of it this way, Leo. Poor Robin, injustly captured by some royal dickheads. One soldier watches from the sidelines, really wantin’ ta help! And then, the night after, he confesses and they fuck!” Riley spoke dramatically, sitting down on the ground and removing his prosthetic.

“Worst romance I ever heard of,” Leona snorted, “I could write better wasted.”

“There is no romance!” I felt my entire face burn as I shoved my face into the pillow, “Goodnight!”

I heard Riley and Leona bust out laughing, giving me a few more jabs about the situation before everything died down.


	5. Test

_Waking up again, in white._

_The red haired man looked at me with such a tired look in his eyes. Such exhaustion. When he saw me in the white again, he cracked a smile. Grinning wider. Then laughing. But it wasn’t a happy laugh. It was pained, sarcastic, a noise only to fill the void of the white space. It sounded insane._

_And then his smile was gone. The laugh cut off in an instant. He glared at me, brushing some red hair from his face._

_“Fine. Have it your way,” he spoke, turning his back to me, “I don’t care anymore. You asked for this.”_

In the morning, I opened my eyes, a perplexed look on my face. It was the shortest trip I had ever had to that white space. 

But for some reason, I felt fear crawl up my spine, cold flow through my veins.

I should be happy for this development, right?

He was the one preventing me from remembering. 

Why did I feel so afraid for what was to come?

As I sat up, the door to our room opened. Russell popped his head inside, finding me on the bed. He quietly walked in, holding out a blue bandanna.

Silently, he nodded his head towards the door.

It was time.

It was a fresh morning, crisp and relaxing. It felt way earlier than when I typically woke up, but it felt nice for once. I woke up wide awake after the whole white space dream, so it was nice to get right to it. Russell seemed calmer this morning as well, relaxed and back to his usual demeanor.

“How are you feeling?” Russell asked as we passed through the center of town.

“Way better,” I admitted, “And you?”

“Better,” Russell looked towards me, “I still want to apologize for my behavior. When I was getting you from the knights.”

“Well…it was for a purpose, right?”

“Yes…but it’s still inexcusable for someone to act that way.”

“You’re fine, Russell. Just don’t do that again and we’re good,” I added a short, half-hearted laugh to the end for good measure. He smiled, sighing in relief.

“I won’t,” Russell answered, looking towards the end of town to the end of the barrier, “Are you nervous?”

“I mean…a little,” I scratched the back of my head, “The way you guys fight monsters is incredible. I’m just afraid I’ll fall on my ass during the test.”

“You’ve made incredible progress these past few weeks, Robin,” Russell smiled genuinely, a proud aura coming off of him, “You’ll do fine.”

“I hope so. It’ll be awkward failing and telling that to the rest of the gang,” I chuckled.

“You won’t have to do that…” Russell patted my shoulder encouragingly as we neared the barrier’s edge, “By the way, Robin…”

“Yea?”

“Heliord was the only other town near where you were found. Have you…seen anything you remember? Remember anything else?” 

I took in a deep breath. While it was true I was learning a little more each day…none of it made sense. Recognizing those criminals in jail who didn’t recognize me. Seeing that vision of…death from the white space. None of it added up. I was alive…and how could I know someone who didn’t know me? It was impossible.

I shrugged, “No.”

“That’s strange. You must have passed through Heliord at some point before…”

“I know…” I sighed, “None of it makes sense. It just makes my head hurt at this point.”

“Understandable.”

He stopped short of exiting the barrier, holding out his arm to stop me.

“Alright, you’re going to have to wait here,” Russell spoke, “I need to mark your target, after all. Once everything’s set, I’ll come get you.” 

I took in a deep breath and nodded.

Russell smiled and patted me on the shoulder, “Don’t worry. You’ll do great.” And he walked out of the barrier and into the woods. I sighed, turning around to look around what was happening in town. There wasn’t much happening aside from some soldiers buzzing about. But that was mainly because I was standing near that damn headquarters. I sighed, looking down to the ground. I wondered briefly where that soldier was. It was weird to walk a formerly arrested woman to an inn, right? Just plain weird.

However, I heard a large number of footsteps exit one of the alleyways, several voices speaking all at once. And while I couldn’t hear exactly what was being said, I could recognize some of the voices. I looked up, seeing the familiar black-haired man, the fiery teenager, the kid, and that weird…dog…thing standing, huddled together in the middle of the road. I rose an eyebrow in surprise. Huh. So were they found innocent, too? That’s good for them, I guess. I didn’t really know what they were being arrested for…but at least that worked out for them.

The conversation between them died down, and the group seemed to split up.

As I watched them, the kid suddenly turned his head and noticed me. I looked at him curiously, giving him a very hesitant wave. He ended up walking towards me, a hesitant look on his own face as he looked me up and down.

“You’re the lady Russell took with him, aren’t you?” he asked. I looked him over with a raised eyebrow. He was familiar just as the long-haired man was, though I tried not to think about it too hard. He had a strange style of clothes, made of greens and tans, with a red bandanna around his neck. Over his shoulder was an impossibly large bag that just seemed excessive. Useful, yes…but way too excessive. 

“Yea?” I spoke, “Do you…know him?”

“Yea! I mean, kind of,” he looked down, looking a bit embarrassed about that, “Um…are you a member of Snake Eyes?”

“Kind of…?” I admitted with a small laugh, “I’m actually about to do initiation. I mean…the test. I hope there isn’t a full initiation, honestly.” Though I didn’t think Russell and Riley were much for formalities like that. For some reason, I could see the celebration involving a lot of drinking. 

“Oh, really?” he looked surprised at that, “That’s…um…good.” He looked nervous, all of a sudden. I rose my eyebrow, wondering what that could be about. 

“How do you know Russell?” I asked curiously, looking him up and down. He couldn’t be in a guild, right? He couldn’t be older than thirteen, and that was with a ton of leeway.

“W-Well…I-I’ve just seen him. Around,” he immediately replied, his face turning a small shade of red. Alright then. That wasn’t a topic I was going for force out of him. 

“So what’s your name?” I asked, mainly to change the topic than anything else, “Are you from Dahngrest?”

“Oh! Yea! I’m Karol,” he smiled shyly, obviously grateful to say something else.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Robin,” I held out my hand, and he gave it a light shake.

“So are you new to Dahngrest?” Karol asked, scratching the back of his head, “I-It’s just people know each other there…and you don’t know me and I don’t know you. And Snake Eyes is from there…so…” 

He was obviously nervous about something. Though what it could be, I had no idea.

“Yea. I came there a little over a month ago,” I answered.

“Oh yea…that would make sense…” he looked down, putting his hand to his chin, thinking a bit.

“For what?”

“Oh! N-Nothing!” Karol jumped, looking right back up at me, “So why did you get arrested?”

“Wow, you don’t beat around the bush, do you?” I chuckled, scratching the back of my head, “I was…um…trying to find something. It was all a misunderstanding, honestly. I froze up when the soldiers found me.” It was only a half truth, but I wasn’t about to divulge the dirty details to a kid I just met.

“Are you not used to being around them, too?” he asked, his hands clutching the strap of his bag nervously.

“Yea…” I admitted, “It’s a good thing Russell got me. That would have been a mess. By the way, how did you get out? You were with those other two, right?”

“Oh yea! We got pardoned by Estelle!”

“Estelle?” I asked, tilting my head. That name sounded familiar.

“Yea! She…um…” he suddenly stopped, as if he remembered something, “Well…she helped us!”

“Is she a soldier?”

“N-No…not really…” he looked uncomfortable.

“Well, good thing you have her, regardless,” I spoke, “Did you have to spend the right there? That dinky cell felt crowded even with three people.”

“N-No, we were questioned right after you left. We’re heading out early, though…” he grumbled. He didn’t seem too happy about that. I didn’t know whether it was the early morning or something else bothering him.

“I know the feeling. I got woken up way too early, too,” I laughed, scratching the back of my head, “So where are you headed now? Back to Dahngrest? Was that your guild?”

He looked a little sheepish, “N-No…I mean…maybe? But yea, Dahngrest.”

Maybe? That was an interesting answer. 

I heard footsteps approach, and I turned my head to see Russell returning, “Robin! Everything’s ready for you.”

Karol noticeably stiffened up in front of me. I looked over at him and rose an eyebrow before looking back towards Russell, “Awesome. What do I do now?”

“Well, I’ll lead you to the right spot and we’ll go from there,” Russell stopped short of me and looked over at Karol, “Oh, hey there. You want to try again?”

“N-No thank you!” Karol immediately stuttered out, looking back to me, “U-Um…good luck!”

“Thank you,” I answered, smiling at the kid, “Hope to see you in Dahngrest, Karol!”

Despite his sudden nerves, he smiled, “Yea!” He quickly walked away down the main road, clutching his bag close. Beside me, I could hear Russell chuckle in amusement.

“Interesting to see him out here,” he said, giving my shoulder a pat to lead me through the barrier.

“I take it you know him?” I asked, following him into the forest.

“He has a bit of a reputation in Dahngrest,” Russell explained, “He’s a bit of a guild hopper. Which isn’t the best thing to be known for.”

“Guild hopper?”

“He’s been in almost every guild in the union. And he’s been kicked out of every single one of them.”

“Really? But he’s just a kid.”

“That doesn’t matter with guilds. If you need to work, you work. I was younger than him when I started,” he explained, sighing, “He’s a good kid. Just…isn’t fit for battle. At all. I let him take the test and he just ran off in the middle of it. Didn’t even hit the monster I picked out for him. And it was the smallest little thing.” He ran a hand over his head, giving it a scratch.

“Oh…” I looked back in the direction of town and frowned, “He did seem really nice.”

“Yea. It’s a shame,” Russell sighed, “But right now you should focus on your own guild introduction. So we’re headed back to the clearing from yesterday.”

“No soldiers, right?”

“Of course not,” he chuckled, “But once we get there, you’ll need to find one monster with the blue bandanna on it. All you need to do is get the bandanna. While I recommend you kill it…there isn’t a rule about just swiping it and coming back to me. The monster shouldn’t have wandered too far, so just scout around the area, find it, fight the monster, get the bandanna, and come back. I’ll be in the clearing.”

“How did you get the bandanna on the monster?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Trade secret, Robin,” Russell grinned as we passed into the same clearing as yesterday. Which I could tell mostly because the marks from our training were still embedded into the dirt. I took in a deep breath, unsheathing my sword.

“Alright…I can do this…” I muttered to myself, flexing my arms and giving my sword a few more practice swings. My blastia had been returned to me, hanging off my left arm.

“You may now begin, Robin,” Russell spoke, crossing his arms and grinning at me, pointing in a vague direction to the north, “Good luck.”

“Thanks…” I smiled, hurrying over to where he pointed and immersing myself in the foliage once again.

It didn’t take long until I found my mark.

It was a tiny little thing, barely reaching halfway up my thigh. It was round with a smooth tail, literally bouncing around the grass and looking around with these adorably large black eyes. Its front and underside were a pale yellow, the rest made up of a sky-blue color. It was almost hard for me to spot the bandanna at first, though I quickly spotted it tied to the base of its tail, waving around in the air with every bounce the creature made.

Seriously? Russell had given me this?

One part of me was all sorts of relieved. The other part was a little irritated that he had so little faith in me. But I wasn’t joining to be a fighter. I was joining to see the world. Not to fight huge dragons that would kill me if they looked at me.

I readied my blade, charging in and giving the creature a quick swipe.

Needless to say, the battle went entirely too smoothly.

In a minute, I was standing in the forest with a blue bandanna in my hand and a fleeing blue creature disappearing into the bushes. I sighed, tying the bandanna round my neck. Well. That was anti-climactic. At least this meant I was in the guild.

And would probably be drinking in some sort of celebration tonight. I was beginning to wonder what Niral would start acting like under the influence. What kind of secrets did they hold in that brain of theirs…?

I took a step towards the clearing, but immediately froze. Something was watching me. I looked around carefully, trying to see the source. I knew that something was off…and I wasn’t about to get caught off guard. And then I saw eyes peering from the bushes. Yellow, reflective eyes peered out at me, fixated. Soon, I could hear soft growling. I readied my blade again, tensing up as I stared the eyes down. I took in a deep breath.

A wolf-like creature jumped out at me, teeth bared. I held up my sword to block it. It bit into the sword, my wrist giving so it crunched down on the flat sides… but the momentum knocked me down to the ground, the wolf landing right on top of me.

I kicked it off, rolling away, struggling to keep the sword in my hand. Then I felt a flash of pain in my leg.

I hissed, looking back to see the wolf sinking its teeth in.

I swung my other leg around, kicking it square in the head, making it let go. I pulled my leg away and struggled to stand up, feeling the pain spike from the wound.

Fuck. I needed Russell.

I stumbled away, each step on my bad leg sending a spike of pain through my nerves. The wolf, however, wasn’t so keen on giving up. It snarled behind me. I turned around, blocking again with my sword, this time not dropping to the ground. I pushed it away.

“Shit…stop!” I hissed at the wolf, trying to swipe at it, completely missing as it sidestepped me and lunged right for my arm. It didn’t get a bite in…but it did manage to leave thick scratches with its teeth. I grunted, stumbling back again. 

I kicked at it, and it easily twirled away from it, looking at me with ravenous eyes. I readied my blade. Why the fuck wouldn’t it take a hit? Why was I moving so slow?

As I stared it down with dark eyes, I felt a surge of energy from the blastia. I could feel my body move on its own, angling my sword down to the ground. And I swiped up, creating a surge of energy that shot out towards the wolf.

“Demon fang!” I called out naturally, watching in disbelief as I hit the wolf directly, knocking it back.

I stared at the sight for a moment.

Wait.

Did I just use an arte?

…Did I really just call my attack?

The wolf began to shake out of its surprise, and I took the opportunity to book it towards the clearing. Cool. I could use artes. But I’d rather live than see if I could do more.  
I could see the clearing a little beyond the trees, along with the calls of the wolf behind me.

“Russ!” I called out, some panic in my voice.

Behind me, the wolf growled, threatening to pounce on me again.

And then I heard a slam. 

Then, nothing.

I hesitantly turned around, seeing blood. Russell stood behind me, his sword embedded right through the wolf. I gagged, turning away and covering my mouth.

“Robin, are you alright?” Russell asked, walking towards me, not collecting his sword from the wolf.

“Y-Yea…thanks…” I was definitely trying not to puke right there on the spot. Sure, I had seen monster fights before…but that was a little too close for me. 

“Let’s get you back, alright?” Russell turned back to yank the sword out of the wolf – holy shit that noise sounded so gross – and turned his back to me, kneeling down on the ground. I took no time getting on his back, mainly because leaving meant the faster we would be away from the speared wolf on the ground. With his sword in hand, Russell hurried away, leaving the little area behind.

“So…” I spoke, “At least I got my bandanna?”

“Yea, at least there’s that,” Russell couldn’t help but chuckle, “I apologize. I didn’t know that a wolf was on the prowl.”

“I think killing it made up for that,” I chuckled, wincing when my injured leg moved.

“Yea…at least there’s that,” he smiled. 

Thankfully, the trip back was uneventful. We entered the town at the peak of the afternoon, while people weaved through the streets to whatever destination they had in mind. Thankfully, carrying an injured woman with a bleeding arm and leg was a crowd repellent, and Russell had a wide berth to navigate through.

As we neared the inn, we began to notice that the soldier activity around the far side of town. I could feel Russell tense up, holding my legs firmer as we weaved through them. I looked around cautiously, wondering what could have happened. As my eyes grazed over the various soldiers, my eyes met blue eyes. 

This soldier looked a lot more different than the others stationed around town. He was wearing a symphony of blues and whites as opposed to oranges and yellows. He had blond hair that hung right over his eyes. Also…unlike the other soldiers around town, this one seemed more personable. Maybe it was his likable face? He was definitely a good looking dude. Maybe that helped. But when he met my eyes and he saw me, he immediately rushed over towards Russell and I, a concerned look etched on his face.

“What happened?” the soldier asked, “Do you need any help finding a doctor?”

“A monster just got to her,” Russell’s voice was pleasant, though I could feel his body tensed and his voice a little more controlled than usual, “We’re on our way to find a healer.”

“I’m sure I can find help if you want the assistance,” the soldier offered.

“No, our healer’s staying at the inn,” Russell asserted, “We’re with a guild.”

That sentence made the soldier raise his eyebrows, backing off, “Oh. I apologize. I do have to warn you that quite a few people of importance are staying as well. I urge you to not wander.” The soldier took another concerned look at me, mainly to the injury on my leg, before walking back to his post. I smiled apologetically at him. He didn’t seem like the soldiers I had encountered before. Maybe the uniform meant he was more in a hospitality-style group? Or a group that actually cared about people? It was a mystery to me.

Russell continued through the street and opened the door to the inn, finding quite a few soldiers positioned throughout the lobby. He looked suspiciously at most of them, heading towards the stairs. However, before we could even get to the first step, a soldier clad in red and orange, as well as a helmet that concealed their face, stepped in our way.

“What business do you have here?” he asked.

“I rented a room here,” Russell said bluntly.

“Really? What proof do you have?” the soldier looked us up and down. He didn’t even seem to be concerned over my injuries, acting like they weren’t even there. 

Russell wordlessly fished out his room key from his pocket and dangled them in front of the soldier’s helmet, “Let us through. I have an injured teammate.”

The soldier huffed in disappointment, stepping aside, “Fine. But we’re watching you.”

“Same for us,” Russell spoke back, words dripping with animosity as he stormed up the stairs, clearing as much distance between us and the soldier as fast as he could. The hallway wasn’t that different, soldiers practically lining the doors past our room. He fiddled with the lock of our door, missing the key hole a few times.

I leaned over to his ear and whispered, “What kind of guest is here?”

“I have no idea,” Russell whispered back as he finally turned the lock, “But this isn’t a good place for us to be.” The door quickly opened, and inside, three pairs of eyes turned in unison to look at us with wide eyes. Leona’s hand was on one of her daggers, Riley’s brass knuckles were already on, and Niral merely looked prepared as ever to begin casting a spell. Russell even looked tense, the sword gripped tightly in his hand. It took a moment for the tension in the room to settle, dissolving when the door behind Russell and I shut.

“Damn, Rob, ya look worse for wear,” Riley spoke, raising an eyebrow.

“Yea, it wasn’t smooth sailing,” I joked, “Niral? Can you help me out?”

Niral nodded, walking over to the side of a bed and gesturing for Russell to set me down there. He easily walked over, kneeling down on the side of the bed and letting me off. And as soon as Russell stood up and walked away, Niral was immediately on me, casting magic on all of my injuries. I sighed in relief as the pain began to dissolve away with the white light.

“But I definitely see a bandanna on that neck,” Leona grinned, sitting on the bed across from me, “So what happened? Russell didn’t give you a hard one, did he?” She looked over at Russell, giving him a warning look.

“No, no,” I waved my good hand, “The actual test went smoothly. It’s just…another monster came to say hi?” 

“Oh, damn,” Riley spoke, “Was it a big one?”

“It was a wolf…thing,” I shrugged, “But it was fast.”

“We took care of it,” Russell smiled.

“Yea…I guess,” I scratched the back of my head. If taking care of it together meant me getting almost killed and him killing it in one hit, then that was fine by me. 

“Damn…sounds like an awesome time,” Riley grinned, before his smile fell a little, “Would’ve liked goin’ out with you two than bein’ stuck in here.”

“What’s been going on?” Russell asked, crossing his arms and looking between the others.

“Don’t ask me, I don’t know a thing,” Leona said, “I just know that someone important decided to show up, and the whole town’s overrun. It’s ridiculous.”

“How’re we suppose ta celebrate a new member with soldiers everywhere?” Riley walked over to the window of the inn and looked out, “Can’t have a good time like this.”

“Perhaps outside the town…?” Niral asked, finishing their healing magic on me, leaving nothing but scratches on my clothes and dried blood in its wake.

“Really? I don’t want to camp on a day like this,” Leona huffed, crossing her arms, “Why don’t the soldiers just fucking leave with their important person?”

“If we could ask them to leave, I would,” Russell sighed, scratching the back of his head, “But unfortunately, that’s what we live with in an imperial town.”

“I wouldn’t mind celebrating in the woods,” I spoke, smiling a little, “But only if we have a barrier up.”

“Well, if the newbie’s fine with it, I’m game,” Riley grinned, “Can’t let a few soldiers ruin our fun, right? Let’s get plastered in the woods!”

“Man, it’s been forever since we’ve had something to celebrate,” Leona started smiling as well, “Should we head out first and get some drinks later?”

“Yea,” Russell nodded, “I’d feel better the sooner we’re out of town. But I wouldn’t want to make another trip back. Someone should stay behind.”

“Maybe our newest member can pick the drinks?” Riley spoke, grinning, “Ya ever remember what ya like to drink?”

“Maybe,” I teased.

“I’ll go with her,” Leona spoke up, “Maybe you boys and Niral can scout camp while we get the drinks? It’s only fair.”

I looked over at her and beamed, “Sounds perfect.”

“Pick me up the good stuff,” Riley spoke up as he began packing up his bags.

“Fine. Cheap wine for Riley…” Leona pretended to pull out paper and write it down.

“Fuck you, Leo,” Riley spoke in a deadpan voice, “If ya really wanna give me that shitty juice, get me like five bottles so I can maybe feel a buzz.”

“Sorry, probably not in the budget,” Russell laughed, looking over at Riley.

“Fuck you too, Russ,” Riley pulled over his hooded shirt and picked up his bag, “I’ll go back to town myself if I have to.”

Packing up our room at the inn proved to be a quick event. None of us wanted to be around a den of soldiers for much longer, so we worked efficiently, with all of our bags neatly packed and our weapons at the ready incase we did end up running into trouble. As soon as we were done, we were quick to part ways at the edge of town. Russell, Riley, and Niral went off outside of the barrier to scout out for land using another temporary barrier we still had on hand, giving Leona the general location they would be scouting out in. Meanwhile, Leona and I were given a small budget from Russell and a small list of things we needed to pick up along with alcohol.

“So what exactly do you like, Robin?” she asked as we weaved our way through Heliord again, keeping a low profile amongst the soldiers. I had changed out of my typical travel gear to my leisure attire…also known as the clothes I woke up in. I still needed to wash the blood out and do something about the cuts in the fabric out of my regular clothes…though Leona reassured me that Evelyn could easily handle that later. I did have an extra set of the same travel clothes, but I wanted to be comfortable when I was drinking, dammit.

“I…actually don’t remember,” I admitted sheepishly, “I was just being coy back there.”

Leona laughed, “I figured. Man, it’d suck if you could remember your choice of drink but not your name, right?”

“Hey, the drinking would help me cope with not having a name,” I joked, getting another rise out of Leona. 

“Well, I can help you pick something out. I can read you whatever you want,” Leona offered.

“Oh…” I had forgotten that I might not be able to read the bottles, “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Leona hummed as we weaved through some more people, “Maybe we can get a big variety? So you can try everything out?”

“How much variety can we get on this budget?” I asked, tilting my head.

“Oh, we can see,” Leona spoke.

We made it to a particular store in town, the storefront open to the streets where anyone could walk in and make a purchase. While Leona and I looked through a lot…some of the terms didn’t make sense to me. Potions were apparently also a type of alcohol? Not to mention some of the ingredients didn’t sound familiar at all. Eventually, I let Leona take the reins of ordering up a large variety for me to try out, as well as a few bottles of a particular brand for herself and Russell (“We have the same tastes. The best taste,” she said). Eventually, we were just standing out there, waiting for big bag of alcohol to be ready to go.

“Hey Robin,” Leona turned to me after a small while of waiting, “Can you actually stop by Fortune’s Market to pick up the rest? It’ll save time.”

“Yea, sure!” I nodded, taking the list from her and tracing my steps back to the main road. Thankfully, Leona had added some notes to Russell’s writing to make it easier for me to decipher. Russell’s handwriting wasn’t that good, so it was much appreciated. I looked through the list, spotting another temporary barrier for camping, a few gels, and a holy bottle. An easy enough haul.

However, as I stepped into the main road, I felt a distinct shift in the air. I turned my head towards one of the towers that housed the barrier blastia.

People were gathered around it, looking at it with a worried eye. I took a few steps towards the crowd, wondering what was going on. And as I stepped into the main area where the tower stood, the air was practically crushing. 

I fell to my knees, watching at the tower began to pulse with energy, turning hues of orange. I looked around with wide eyes, seeing people flee and soldiers try to guide people away. I saw the brown-haired teenager from before, typing away at a screen in front of the tower, looking furiously at it, saying something about an explosion.

Explosion? What?

The pressure was making me dizzy. It was hard to breathe, hard to even connect coherent thoughts. I would close my eyes to see a different picture. A soldier tried to get me up, to help me to safety. But I could barely walk. And then.

_I was walking along a snow-covered pedestrian bridge, snow tumbling down from the sky to blanket the world around me. I was admiring the view, relishing in the untouched snow before me. I was pretty sure I was the only one outside, only one brave enough to face the cold. Streetlights illuminated my path, and below the cars zipped by on icy roads. I took a pause for a second to walk towards the railing of the bridge, looking down at the cars below. I adjusted my glasses and smiled at the sight. The lights of the cars and the streetlights always seemed to pretty to me at night. The only illumination in a sea of dark._

_I felt a vibration in my pocket. I pulled out my phone from my bag and looked at a text from my mother, wondering how I was handling the storm. I texted her a short reply, saying that I was doing fine, and then I exited the app to see the background of my phone._

_A wallpaper from a game I had been playing recently._

_Tales of Vesperia._

_Just as I moved to put my phone back in my bag, I felt it vibrate again, ringing this time from a phone call. A call from my friend. I quickly accepted it and held it to my ear._

_“Hello?” I asked, my breath puffing out in a fog in front of my eyes._

_“Hey, it’s me!” a peppy voice chimed in from the other line, “You alright? You’ve been taking a while.”_

_I laughed sheepishly, “Yea, lost track of time at my place. Got caught up in the game, you know?”_

_She laughed on the other side, “Oh, I know. I just wanted to check on you. Where are you?”_

_“I’m just walking over the bridge. Should be there in about ten minutes,” I spoke, continuing along the bridge, a little faster this time._

_“Alright, alright. I’ll head down to let you in the building,” she spoke, “See you then, ------!”_

_“Awesome! See you,” I smiled, putting the phone back in my bag, walking a little faster down the path to get there as fast as I could. I was coming over to hang out, since there was nothing else to really do in the snowstorm. Work was closed and sitting inside waiting for the snow to go away had driven my half mad. Thankfully I had a friend nearby. Someone who could at least relieve me of cabin fever._

_I breathed out again, watching my breath fog up the air around me, drifting off into the wind._

_As much as I hated snow sometimes, it sure was beautiful. I could walk around in it forever, honestly. When it was freshly blanketed and pretty, it was amazing._

_However, as I began to think more and more on the conversation, I slowly began to realize something that itched in the back of my skull._

_Where was I?_

_What had she called me?_

_Robin?_

_That was my name, right?_

_No, she hadn’t said Robin. Why would my name be Robin?_

_No, she had said something different._

_Something with a sharp beginning and a lulled ending. A profession to some, something that everyone always seemed to tease me about._

_I urgently took out my phone, looking down at the picture in the background, spotting familiar faces in the cartoon drawings. No, not completely familiar. They looked different in real life. Raven, with the dark lines under his drooped eyes and a few marks on his arms that weren’t present in the drawings. Karol, who looked like he shouldn’t even be able to carry around that backpack, sporting a few freckles along his nose. Yuri, whose slight frizz lining his hair wasn’t present in the game, the way his fingers were long and bony. Repede, who looked so real and threatening, the odd design looking completely natural on him in real life. Rita and Estelle I had only seen from a distance, but I could already tell that their appearances held the same difference as well._

_But they weren’t real._

_Another text message popped up, the notification hanging on the top of my screen. A message from my friend._

_“Text me when you’re out front, Taylor~”_

_Taylor._

_That was my name._

_My real name._

_And none of this was real in the slightest._

I woke up shaking, sitting straight up and breathing heavily. I looked around wildly, taking in the city of Heliord and the now-normal colored pillar in the center of the square. Everything looked like it was straight from the game, though had a real feeling to it. The town was larger than it was in the game, but it was unmistakable that this was the town I saw playing that game. In front of me, I could see a few soldiers escorting Estelle and Rita – who both looked especially real - down the road. People were rushing around, helping each other up and getting settled from when the blastia went crazy.

Just like in the game.

My breathing began to quicken as I kept looking around and recounting the past month or so of my life. 

This was Tales of Vesperia.

None of this was real, right?

I had to be dreaming. Why wasn’t I waking up? Why couldn’t I remember how I had gotten here? Why couldn’t I remember before?

I kept breathing quicker and quicker.

Where was my mom? My dad? My family? I wanted to see them. I had been gone for so long. And I hadn’t remembered them for all that time!

I was shaking and I knew it. I pulled my legs closer to me and wrapped myself into a ball.

What the fuck was going on?

“Hey, are you alright?”

A gentle hand was on my shoulder. I tensed up, turning my head to see the face of the soldier clad in blue from earlier.

Flynn.

I tensed up automatically, trying to get away. No. Flynn wasn’t real. He was a character in a video game! I wasn’t supposed to be talking to Flynn or seeing Estelle and Rita walk around in Heliord! This was supposed to be a story! A video game I could watch from the safety of a television screen.

“It’s okay, the blastia’s fine. You’re with that guild, right? I won’t hurt you,” Flynn spoke calmly, withdrawing his hand and holding it out, palm showing to me to show that he meant no harm, “Do you need help? I can assist in any way I can.”

Typical Flynn, always trying to help everyone. 

But what the hell was I supposed to say? That he’s not real and I was in some weird dream I couldn’t wake up from?

I took in a shaky breath – come on, you could do this, “I-I’m fine…I-I just…” My mind was blanking on an excuse. Everything was just filled in with all of the panic of my newfound memories. Oh God…I wasn’t from this world. I couldn’t find my family at all. What was I supposed to tell Snake Eyes?

Were Riley and the rest of them not real, too?

“I know, it’s a scary experience,” Flynn gave me a gentle smile, standing up, “Do you need help finding the inn, Miss…?” He held out his hand to help me up, head tilting as he waited for my response. I opened my mouth to respond…only to pause. Then, I reached up and took his hand.

“T…Taylor,” I spoke, standing up beside him, “My guild actually left town…I-I need to go catch up to them. I’ll be fine on my own, though. Thank you.” I mustered up the fakest smile I could.

Flynn paused, looking at me a little closer, before he straightened up his stance, “Alright. Stay safe, Miss. Taylor.” He walked away to check on someone else who was still downed in the area around the blastia.

I took in a shaky deep breath, trying to make sense of what was going on. I needed to find Snake Eyes, first thing.

I had no idea what I was going to tell them, though. I could barely make sense of what kind of situation I was in. This all took place during the game…so I was in the middle of it. I began walking down the road, mulling over my memories.

“Robin!”

What was the last thing I could remember before waking up near Dahngrest? It had to be me walking to my friend’s place. In the middle of all that snow.

“Hey, Robin!”

But everything blanked out in the middle of it. Was that strange man in my dreams still keeping that locked up? God…if I knew how to find him, I would go straight there. But how was I supposed to do that? My dreams only sometimes had him appear. It was never a constant nowadays, like it was at the beginning.

“Robin! Hey!”

Someone grabbed my shoulder and whirled me around.

Leona.

“O-Oh! Leona…” I broke out of my concentration, still feeling strange.

“Hey, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I called out for you but you weren’t listening,” Leona furrowed her eyebrows, looking me over carefully, “You alright? You weren’t near the blastia, were you?”

“O-Oh, I was…b-but I’m fine! I’m just a little…jittery from it all,” I spoke, looking down nervously. I could feel Leona’s eyes bare into me. I couldn’t even will myself to give a convincing performance after everything that had been thrown on my plate.

Finally, after a few long moments, Leona sighed, her stance relaxing, “Bet that was scary, huh?” She patted my shoulder.

“Y-Yea…” I answered.

She looked over towards the store for Fortune’s Market, “Unfortunately, the store’s closed. Must’ve all shut down after that freak incident. Looks like Russell will just have to go tomorrow. Let’s get out of here, Robin.”

It felt so surreal to be called that now. I knew it wasn’t my name. But I couldn’t will myself to tell her my real name.

“I bet they’re worried out there…” I spoke quietly, looking at the large bag in Leona’s arms, “Um…do you need help with those?”

“Oh, that’d be great,” Leona spoke, motioning for me to turn around so she could stuff some bottles in my backpack, “And yea…they probably saw that barrier fiasco out in the wilds. But we’re fine, so it shouldn’t be a huge deal. That’s all that matters, right?”

Oh, I could tell Leona a lot of other things that mattered to me at that moment, but I bit my tongue and nodded with a smile.

The walk out of town was short and sweet, which was definitely the most I could take. I could make the small talk and listen to Leona talk about all the booze she wanted me to try out to ‘remember’ my favorites. But my mind was completely distracted. I kept thinking about this whole situation. All I knew was Brave Vesperia’s adventure. And I hadn’t even finished that game! I had just made it into Act Three before my memory blanked out. And even then I couldn’t remember every single little event of the game.

How many more things would happen until then?

Did I even want to be along for that ride, if I had the opportunity?

“Leo! Rob! Over here!” Riley called out from a spot along the path, where a fire had been set up along with our sleeping gear and a temporary barrier. Riley waved from beside the fire, his other arm dropping some sticks unceremoniously into the flames. Russell looked up from his sleeping bag, smiling in relief when he saw us. Niral sat on their sleeping bag, flipping through a worn book.

“You’re back,” Russell walked towards us, closing the distance.

“Yep! We got the booze, but the market closed before we could get to it. That’ll be your job tomorrow,” Leona spoke as I handed over the leftover money to Russell.

“Does that have something to do with the commotion we heard earlier?” Russell asked, looking concerned.

“Yea, probably,” Leona answered, shrugging her shoulders in indifference, “Something weird happened with the blastia. We weren’t caught up in it, though.” She patted my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. I looked over in confusion and saw her giving me an overtly relaxed look.

Obviously, she didn’t want my experience to get out and worry the rest of them.

“Yea,” I looked over to Russell and smiled, “We felt it…but nothing else.” I couldn’t bring it up. Not the event. Not my memories. Not about this whole fucking world of Tales of Vesperia. I smiled brightly, burying everything down, swallowing it down to the pit of my stomach like a pill.

Leona walked over towards the fire and began dumping down the bottles beside the fire, examining each one, “So what should we have you try first?”

Riley rolled over and grinned, picking up a bottle and looking over at me, “What kinda poison are ya in the mood for? It’s yer big day, after all!”

Fuck it.

“What’s the strongest you have?” I walked away from Russell and looked down at the bottles, giving the biggest grin I could muster.

I definitely needed the strongest.

The hours went on, drinks and stories shared over the fire. Leona and Riley teamed up to make sure I had at least a sip of every single drink on the menu. Most of the strongest ones I gagged at, though there were a few that tasted similar to my drink of choice, gin, mixed with some regular drinks Leona had gotten to mix with. It wasn’t called gin or anything even close to it, but the taste was definitely the same, and eventually I settled on drink after drink.

Riley told stories of a bar fight he once had. Apparently, he had just been in it to impress a cute girl in the bar and somehow ended up taking off his prosthetic to hit some guy with his metal leg. The story was told with an exasperated Russell at my side, who apparently had to fish Riley out of the place after he drank so much he couldn’t figure out how to put the leg back on. Leona loudly clarified that she had been helping him in the fight, only so she could also impress the same girl. Apparently, the girl ended up leaving before the fight even ended.

Leona ended up telling a story about how she stole a bunch of jewelry from a noble when she lived in the lower quarter of Zaphias. Apparently, this guy had practically stomped through the lower quarter just to laugh at all the poor people, so Leona ended up tailing the guy, pretending to be a lost child, and swiping practically every valuable on his person. She described with elaborate detail at how shocked the guy was when he couldn’t find his prized golden pocket watch. However, some of the adults in the lower quarter found out and made her turn it in as “found items” to the soldiers, since if she got caught, she would have gotten punished. She looked extremely bitter about it, even though she kept saying that she wouldn’t have been able to sell the items anyway.

Russell didn’t tell many stories, but still provided some valuable commentary to the stories Leona and Riley told, fetching the rest of us more drinks whenever our glasses ran empty and putting more logs on the fire if it ever grew dim. He even told everyone about my battle against the wolf, the unexpected enemy on my test. I didn’t provide much commentary between drinks, but I did clarify that I had done my best (even if my best was terrible) before Russell had come to rescue me. 

Niral even had a few drinks, though I quickly learned that Niral was not the best drinker. They were only on their third drink when they practically passed out on their sleeping bag, looking the most relaxed I had ever seen them in the time I’ve known them.

“Oh, looks like the heir is sleeping,” Riley joked, poking Niral directly in the face, laughing when they didn’t even flinch.

“The heir?” I asked as Russell poured me another drink.

“Maybe,” Riley shrugged his shoulders, “None of us know where Niral came from. It’d figure if they ended up the third candidate to the imperial throne, to be honest.”

“Shit, that’d be awesome,” Leona snorted, “At least one candidate would be decent.”

“Are the others not good people?” I asked.

“Who the fuck cares if they are or not?” Leona spat back, downing the rest of her drink before continuing, “The candidates are a bunch of idiot nobles who don’t give a shit about us anyway.”

Well, both Ioder and Estelle were good candidates. Didn’t Ioder end up taking the throne? I had read a spoiler on that.

“What if little Rob here is actually a big important noble?” Riley laughed, giving me a hard pat on the back, “Wouldn’t that be somethin’.”

“That’s hard to picture,” Leona snorted again, the smile coming back on her face.

“Little Robin, all dressed up in those fancy clothes,” Riley smirked at me, “Ev would have a heart attack.”

“Oh yea! We need to start planning,” Leona perked up and stumbled over to me, “Where do you want to go first? There’s a big wide world out there.”

“Go first…?” I asked, tilting my head.

“To find your family,” Leona replied deadpan, “Maybe we should crash Zaphias first. If they don’t chase us out.”

Right. My family.

I wouldn’t find them on this world.

“How about Palestralle?” Russell spoke up, smiling, “That seems like the next best place. Plenty of guilds there who might know something.”

I smiled and nodded, knowing that this whole conversation was meaningless. 

“I mean, you guys have been there. I’ll follow your lead,” I smiled. Nodded. Didn’t let anything through.

“Hey, we’re all in Snake Eyes, right? That means you get a say,” Riley whined, throwing an arm over my shoulders, “So whatcha in the mood for?”

Why couldn’t they talk about something else?

I felt sick.

“Palestralle?” I managed to pipe out, smiling plastered to my face, “Sounds good to me, with no soldiers.”

“Palestralle it is!” Leona declared, “Alright, put down that drink. What here’s from Palestralle? Give it to Robin!”

I smiled, taking another drink from Russell when he poured it.

I felt really sick.

But I drank and tried to forget that sickness. Those memories that festered in my stomach. 

It wasn’t until everyone had managed to pass out when it finally spilled over. I ran towards the edge of the barrier, the moonlight the only thing guiding me, when I spilled the entire contents of the night onto the grass. I puked everything out until I was trembling beside the remainder, shaking on my knees as I clutched to a nearby tree for support.

This was all just a bad dream, right?

Why wasn’t I waking up?

This would have normally been a good dream. Spending time in another world…that sounded so good on paper. All of those self-inserts I used to read online always sounded so cool and interesting. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with the heroes of video games, right?

But I just felt so afraid. What was I supposed to do?

“Hey, Robin?”

I tensed up, trying to slow my deep breaths as I heard Riley approach me, setting a gentle hand on my shoulder.

I couldn’t help but laugh to relieve the tension in the air, “I thought you passed out.”

“I didn’t drink that much,” Riley laughed half-heartedly, “You need help?”

“Yea…”

In more ways than one. Though I could never tell him the details.

Riley carefully helped me up, looking me over, “Yer gonna have ta change. Ya still have a clean shirt?”

I nodded.

“Alright, great,” Riley began guiding me back to camp, where the rest of the guild were still passed out. He walked me to my sleeping bag and carefully helped me down before he went to my bag, fetching out a new shirt for me to wear.

“Do you need help?” Riley asked.

I shook my head. He looked the other way while I fiddled with my shirt, everything a thousand times more difficult with the alcohol in my system. Once my vomit-covered shirt was tossed to the side and the new one was slipped on, Riley looked back to me and sighed.

“Get some sleep, alright? And get some water when ya wake up,” Riley stood up as I began situating myself inside of my sleeping bag. However…he didn’t walk towards his sleeping bag. Instead…he just walked away with an eerie precision that someone who had a night of drinking shouldn’t have been able to have.

“Riley?” I called out, my speech a little slurred, “Where’re you going?”

Riley turned back towards me with a bright smile, “Out. I’ll be back. Just get some sleep. Everything’ll be better in the mornin’, Robin.”

Everything would be better.

Did that mean I would wake up in my own bed? 

I would give anything for that to happen.

The last thing I saw was Riley’s retreating back disappear into the shadows of the trees.

_And then I woke up in white, eyes locked onto the back of the red-haired man._

_I tried to move towards him, to try and get a hold on him. But I was stuck in place, unable to move forward._

_“Hey!” I called out, surprised that my voice worked this time, “What’s going on?”_

_The red-haired man didn’t flinch or even acknowledge I was there._

_“Why am I here?” I asked desperately, “What did you do to me? You’re the one who did this, right? Why?”_

_The man flinched when I finished._

_I was right on the money, wasn’t it?_

_“Take me back!” I yelled, “I want to go home!”_

_Slowly, the man began to turn around, facing me. I drew in another breath, ready to demand once again._

_Only to let that air leave me voiceless when I saw his expression._

_His expression was pained, distraught. It was the saddest look I had ever seen on anyone, the very epitome of the emotion. I could see wet lines trailing down from his eyes to the bottom of his cheeks._

_He spoke, but I couldn’t hear him. I tried to figure out the words by looking at his lips. Most of the words were lost on me, except for two words._

_Forgive me._


	6. United

I woke with a start, sitting up and breathing heavily. My head pounded like a second heartbeat. I felt extremely sick, like I was going to puke at any second.

But when I took in my surroundings, my heart dropped.

I was still in the camp, with the members of Snake Eyes milling about.

I wasn’t home.

I looked around blankly for a while, letting that fact set in. However, Russell walked over, snapping me out of it.

“Robin, you alright?” Russell asked, concerned.

“O-Oh…” I jumped, looking up at him, “Yea. I’m fine. Is something wrong?” He had a certain look on his face. That something was bothering him. 

“We’re all fine here…but…” Russell paused, looking around camp again, “Did you see Riley before you fell asleep?”

I froze, looking up at him with confusion, “Yea…why?”

Russell sighed, wincing a little, “He wasn’t here when I woke up. I sent Leona out to check town…so hopefully he’s just getting something for a hangover. But…”

He was worried. It was etched into his body language and the tone of voice. 

I thought back to the previous night. Though hazy, I remembered that Riley had left camp in the middle of the night. But which way had he gone? What was he even doing?

“I saw him leave before I fell asleep…” I slowly stood up, hissing at the pain pounding in my head, “Which way was it…?” I walked to the edge of the tree line, looking lazily around for a familiar spot. I had puked out my guts before he left. He left around the same direction as that, right? Russell followed closely behind, examining every leaf and blade of grass along the way.

Finally, I reached a dark spot in the grass. The remains of my leavings from last night.

“It was here…” I spoke, looking out into the dim forest light, “He went this way.”

“This was last night, right?” Russell asked, crossing his arms, looking even more concerned.

“Yea,” I confirmed with a nod.

Russell looked out silently before turning his head towards Niral, “Niral, go that way and see what you can find. Come right back the second you find something.”

Niral silently nodded and quickly walked into the forest, their eyes alert and ready. I guessed that Niral didn’t have much of a hangover to lose when they passed out after a few drinks. Lucky bastard.

“Hey guys!”

A voice called out, making my head pulse louder.

“Leona…” Russell seethed beneath his breath, “Quieter.”

“Right, sorry,” Leona emerged from the main path, using a quieter voice, “I grabbed some potions from the market. Should do the trick.” She quickly made her way over to us, giving us each a bottle of a strange, purple liquid.

“Thank you,” Russell downed the liquid in one gulp, keeping his nose closed with the other hand, and tossed it to the ground as soon as it was done, “Did you see Riley in town?”

I looked down at the potion in my hand, giving it a test swirl.

“No…” Leona shook her head, “I would’ve asked around…but there’d be no point.”

“His hood’s still in his bag, though,” Russell sighed, looking down, “But apparently he headed west.”

I slowly rose the potion to my lips and tipped the glass over, letting the liquid hit my lips.

“West?” Leona looked surprised, “Did he go back home?”

“Why would he leave by himself if that were the case? We were heading home.”

The taste hit my tongue.

It was the bitterest thing I had ever tasted.

I gagged.

“Robin, don’t waste it. That’s expensive,” Leona looked towards me with a glare, “Pinch your nose.”

I nodded, drinking the rest with my nose pinched, trying not to gag the entire time. However, as soon as it all went down my throat, I felt ten times better. Wait. Was this a magical hangover potion?

Oh God, what I would have given for this on earth.

“So what should we do, Russell?” Leona asked, crossing her arms, “If Riley’s not back by now, then we oughtta move. Something could have happened.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Russell spoke, walking over towards our things piled around the fire, “Robin, help me get camp together. Leona, go get Niral. They headed west.”

Leona was quick to leave and I was quick to help out with the packing. We didn’t have much, so it was a quick affair. I ended up with Riley’s bag, mainly because I wasn’t much of a fighter yet. If we encountered a monster, then the others would need to be at the ready. Not overloaded with Riley’s deadweight.

As soon as Leona returned with Niral, we began heading west on the main path to Dahngrest, with Leona and Russell searching through the woods along the way. Niral and I stuck together on the main road, occasionally taking breaks while the others combed the trees. It was a few hours of no progress when we finally found a clue.

“I found footprints,” Russell spoke up from his side of the forest, getting up to wave the rest of us over. When we arrived, we saw footprints pressed into the dirt, one footprint leaving more prominent marks than the other. Telltale sign that one leg carried more weight than the other.

“What was he doing sneaking around here?” Leona rose an eyebrow, “They’re pretty fresh. Why didn’t he take the main path?”

“Soldiers?” I asked.

“He shouldn’t be around them at all,” Russell sighed, “Why would he risk that?”

“Well we have a lot of questions that aren’t going to get answered if we keep asking,” Leona spoke with a huff, following the footprints a little deeper into the forest, “Let’s head in.”

“Alright, stay on your guard, everyone,” Russell announced, following her deeper in. Niral and I followed, Niral taking the rear. I looked around curiously. It didn’t look like any special part of the forest. It was the same as the rest I had seen, honestly. What happened?

The change came in a split second. There was a pause in the line, a chill in the air that swept over us immediately. Leona and Russell froze in place. I almost knocked into Russell, stopping short of touching his back. I looked up, confused, before I looked around him, shivering at the sight.

Blood, everywhere.

No bodies, but too much blood staining the dirt, smearing the tree trunks, drying onto the bushes. I could feel the fear in the air radiating from everyone, striking fear into our hearts. What happened here?

Whose blood was this?

“Spread out,” Russell called out, though I could tell his usual steady voice was beginning to crack, “But do not wander too far.”

Silently, each of us began walking around the carnage, trying to find some hint of what happened. I couldn’t lie. I wasn’t handling this blood well at all. I knew it was something I had to get used to here. Russell killing that monster in front of me was proof of that. But when you spend your whole life living comfortably on earth, living a normal, everyday life, you would never expect to see so much blood. So much blood that could have belonged to one of your friends.

I prayed it wasn’t Riley’s. 

I ended up fixing my attention instead on the marks of a fight. The gashes on trees, stricken by some sort of blade. The kicked-up dirt from someone holding their ground. The flattened grass of someone crashing down to the ground, maybe rolling some ways back. Each mark had its own flecks of blood tattooed onto it, but it was enough that I could handle it. 

There had been a bad fight here. But where did the participants end up? This looked terrible. How could they have left so easily?

As my eyes traced over a few bushes, I spotted something peculiar. A spot of green that didn’t quite fit in with the natural greens. I took a few steps forward, getting a better look at it.

Riley’s bandanna, tangled up in the bushes, the corners stained red.

I froze, forgetting how to breathe.

Oh my god. 

Not him.

And then, I heard a noise above me. I was shaking, afraid. I slowly traced my eyes up the damaged trunk of the tree, passing by flecks of blood along the way. Atop one of the branches, I saw a shadow. I took in a deep breath of panic, frozen in fear. I moved to grab my sword, my arm shaking the entire time. The shadow moved just a tiny bit, and I began to panic.

Then I heard another noise.

A snore.

I stopped, taking a step closer to get a better look.

Atop one of the branches was Riley, sleeping the day away.

I stood there for a few seconds in disbelief. Wait…all this time, and Riley was just sleeping? Sure, he looked a little worse for wear, but nothing too serious – wait, was this arm bending a little weird? – but he was snoring away like there wasn’t a care in the world.

I felt relieved. 

But also a little pissed off.

“Riley?” I called up.

Riley didn’t budge.

“Riley?” I called again.

“Mmm…” Riley yawned, “Five more fuckin’ minutes, Rob.”

I stood there, eyebrows furrowing. I turned back in the direction of the other three members of Snake Eyes.

“Guys. I found him. Get over here.”

Within five minutes, Riley was knocked down to the ground.

“What the actual fuck, guys?!” he yelled, springing right to his feet, carefully nursing an obviously broken left arm.

“I should be saying that to you,” Russell answered with a deadpan look on his face, “Do you know how worried we were, Riley? What the hell happened?”

“You know, the usual,” Riley looked over at Niral, “Can ya lend a hand, Niral?”

“Don’t heal him, Niral,” Russell ordered, “Give me a better answer than that, Riley.”

“What the fuck, Russ? Can’t ya see my arm’s broken?” Riley snapped, glaring at Russell.

“We can give you a splint. If you tell us why you broke it in the first place, maybe I can let Niral expend themselves.”

“Yer a fuckin’ asshole,” Riley leaned back against a tree, “I found a monster. It died. Might have broken my arm. End of story.”

Leona leaned against a tree and traced a blade mark with her finger, “Really? Monsters don’t use swords.” She was obviously pissed at this whole situation. 

“When did you become guild master, Leo?” Riley glared at her. She only shrugged in response, crossing her arms.

“Riley…” Russell sighed, looking at Riley seriously, “This has been a constant. You keep on going off on your own like this. What kind of guild do you think we are? We have to keep each other updated. What have you been doing? What is all of this?”

“I just need a fuckin’ vacation, Russ! That’s it. I’m just havin’ fun.”

“Fun is getting your arm broken?” I chimed in.

Riley glared at me hard, and I couldn’t help but shrink away, “How ‘bout you stay out of this, shit brain?”

“Excuse me?” I spoke in disbelief.

“Ya don’t know shit ‘bout anythin’. Can’t even fuckin’ read. Why the fuck should ya talk about guild stuff? Good job hidin’ those notes, by the way.”

I felt my stomach drop, staring at him slack-jawed. 

“Hey! Don’t you fuckin’ talk like that, Riley!” Leona spoke up, stomping a little closer to Riley.

“Yea, I’m a fucking guild member, too,” I said, though I kept my distance, a frown on my face.

Riley sighed, looking down at Leona with a glare, “What’re ya gonna do, Leo? Fight me?”

“There will not be any fighting here,” Russell stepped between Riley and Leona, pushing them away from each other, “Riley, what the fuck is up with you?”

“Nothing! Why’re y’all makin’ such a big fuckin’ deal? Niral, heal me,” Riley stepped up to Niral, looking up at them with furrowed eyebrows.

Niral looked down with the coldest eyes I had ever seen them with, “Sorry. Guildmaster’s orders.”

Riley groaned, “Fine. I don’t fuckin’ need healin’ anyway…” He began storming off with a noticeable limp, quickly vanishing into the shadows of the forest.

“Riley, wait!” Russell called out, his words deflecting off of our blond guild member, “Shit. Niral, come with me. Leona, Robin, you two keep heading back. We’ll catch up with you.” We all nodded silently, and it wasn’t long before Russell and Niral gave chase to Riley while Leona and I returned to the main road, slowly walking along the path to Dahngrest.

The air was thick. Riley’s words hurt. He was right. I couldn’t read the written language here. It wasn’t even close to English. But after all the time we had spent together, and that’s what he has to say? 

“Hey, hey, you alright?” Leona gently spoke, stepping closer to me and putting an arm over my shoulders – it was a bit awkward since she was smaller than me, but it still felt sweet, “Don’t let that fuckboy get to you. He was a complete asshole back there. Russell oughta kick his ass for all that. To think I was actually worried about him.” She scoffed.

“Why the fuck did he have to bring up the reading?” I was getting a little upset, “Why did he even know?”

“He was probably sneaking around,” Leona sighed, giving my shoulder a pat, “Don’t feel bad. You’ve been making a ton of progress.”

Everything was starting to bubble over. Riley yelling at me just began breaking the dam holding all of my emotions together. My returned memories, the fact that I was stuck here for now, the fact that I probably could never tell a soul about them, my fears while kept prisoner by the soldiers.

Tears began streaming down my face freely. I sniffed to try to keep them down, to bury them back down my throat and into my stomach again. But they just kept coming.

Leona stopped, holding me back so I wouldn’t continue on.

And she pulled me into a tight hug.

“Hey…it’s alright. Let all that out…” she spoke quietly, patting me on the back. That was it.

I started crying. About just about everything I had lived through the past month or so. Everything dripped down my face in tears, completely barred for the world to see. This world. Not the one I called home. 

It must have been forever until I began to calm down, trying to breathe easier and focus on what the plan was for now. There was no use crying like this about being stuck in a video game. Honestly, this was like a dream come true for most people. Who else could say that they had personally met the amazing Raven, after all?

I had to get the complete answer from the man in my dreams. About why I was here to begin with. And if I could go back home. 

And if I couldn’t…what would I do then?

Well, I needed to go one step at a time. I couldn’t think about that. I wouldn’t even know what I would do.

My mind returned to the present. What was supposed to happen next in the story? That craziness in Heliord was still in the first act. Then…everyone went to Dahngrest. But what happened there first? A lot of things happened in Dahngrest, that I was sure of. 

I guess I would find out when the crew came to town.

“Um.”

A voice, called out from a small distance away. Leona and I noticeably jumped in our skin, turning out heads in unison towards where we had just walked from. In the distance, we saw five figures standing tall, one awkwardly looking at us with his hand in his hair.

Yuri, Estelle, Rita, Karol, and Repede. All in the flesh. And all looked upon fresh with my newly recovered memories.

I immediately turned red, turning around to put my back towards them as I tried to wipe away my tears and look at least a little presentable. Leona sighed, looking over at them with a raised eyebrow.

“Can I help you?” she asked, bluntly.

The Brave Vesperia crew’s second impression of me was me crying my eyes out into my guildmember.

Oh God. The first was me getting tossed in jail with them!

“Is everything alright?” a softer, concerned voice piped up. Oh, that had to be Estelle. Their voices were identical to their voices in the game. Except, well, not recorded. And completely real.

“Y-Yea!” I stuttered out, turning right around, looking at all of them with the best smile I could ever muster.

“Robin?” Karol called out.

“O-Oh! H-Hey Karol!” I gave a nervous wave. 

“Huh? Karol?” Leona spoke, stepping forward a bit, “Oh. It is him.”

Karol nervously chuckled, hiding his face from Leona.

“Shouldn’t we get a move on?” Rita asked irritably, raising her eyebrow, “I don’t want to camp out.”

“A-Actually…we will have to camp out,” Karol looked over at Rita, obviously trying to pretend Leona wasn’t there, “If we go straight through, we’ll get to Dahngrest tomorrow morning. After a…uh…entire night of walking.”

“What? Seriously?” Rita huffed, crossing her arms, “Figures.”

Leona rose an eyebrow at that piece of information, “You guys are heading to Dahngrest? I don’t remember seeing most of you guys in town.”

“Well, we’re just passing through,” Yuri spoke up, regarding the two of us with an apathetic expression.

“To what? There’s nothing else I know of,” Leona scoffed, looking at the group suspiciously.

Estelle smiled gently, “Well, we’re actually going to investigate – ”

“We want to see the sights,” Yuri interrupted her, patting her shoulder and giving her a knowing look. At first, I was confused, but then realized that I was a complete stranger to them. Me, who had seen good chunks of their stories and learned so much about them.

“Well, we’re heading the same way,” I spoke up, pointing behind me, “Do you guys want to travel together?”

Wait. Did I really just suggest that?

“Oh, of course!” Estelle immediately spoke up, smiling brightly.

Bless Estelle for being so nice and trusting.

“What? Really?” Rita looked suspiciously at Leona and me.

“Well, if Estelle says it’s fine, then it’s fine with me,” Yuri shrugged. 

Leona looked back at me with a confused look. I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders. How the hell was I going to explain that?

Wait. Memories. I could say I wanted to get information. Alright. Lovely.

“Alright…” Leona looked over at the group, “I’m Leona, and this here is Robin. We’re both members of Snake Eyes. Who are you guys?”

Oh, I didn’t need introductions, but I was more than happy to listen to these.

“Oh! I’m Estelle! It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Estelle smiled, closing the distance between us and giving a very cordial curtsy. 

“Rita,” Rita said bluntly, not saying anymore as she trailed behind Estelle with a defensive look about her.

“W-Well, you guys know me…” Karol spoke nervously.

“And it’s very nice to see you again, Karol,” I looked down at Karol and gave him a reassuring smile. He looked surprised that I had even said anything, but smiled brightly in return.

“I’m Yuri. And this here’s Repede,” Yuri gestured down towards Repede, who just regarded us with pure apathy, scratching the back of his ears once he got a good look at us. 

“It’s nice to meet you all,” I spoke, smiling shyly, “Um…let’s get moving!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And at long last, here is the end of what I had written for NaNoWriMo 2017, post-editing! Ended with finally joining up with the group before heading over to Dahngrest!
> 
> I'm just going to be honest, I thought I would get a lot farther with the plot going into NaNo. I had an outline going until the end of Act One for NaNo, and we're not even close to that, yet!
> 
> So what I have planned for moving forward is to, well, continue writing this! It's obviously going to take a long time (50,000 words and our dear protag isn't even a party member yet!) but I want to do this. But it'll be in shorter chapters. And probably will also be a continuation NaNo for future NaNos!
> 
> But I'm super glad that people seem to be enjoying this so far! I'm ecstatic that people seem to like the original characters brought to the table. I was a bit nervous people wouldn't enjoy it a lot because there's so much focus on OCs at the beginning, but I'm happy that people enjoy Riley, Leona, Russell, and Niral!


End file.
